PM Blog
5 Questions for Continuous Improvement
Every company operates in relationship to an environment that surrounds it. A company both acts upon its environment and is acted upon by its environment. For this reason, the effort to improve a company’s internal processes should be guided by a vantage point that reflects the reciprocal relationship between a company and its environment.
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Synthetic Coolant Shines In Shop-Wide Applications
TNS Machining (Muskego, Wisconsin) is both a prototype and production machining job shop. After working in the machining industry for many years, Thomas Rowinski, Jr. and his sons started this business in 1981 because they wanted to provide customers with specialized precision machined parts.
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This Filtration System Takes The Cake
For chip removal and coolant filtration in many CNC machining operations, capital cost and proven efficiency still make disposable media designs the common choice. Permanent media chip removal and coolant filtration systems, however, have quickly become a viable option for helping to lower operating and maintenance costs in certain applications. In high-production operations, these systems can increase tooling life and coolant life and reduce nozzle clogging. The systems also are environmentally beneficial and provide cost savings related to media replacement and operator involvement.
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Reduce Waste And Increase Efficiency With Carbide Recycling
As a cost-saving measure and to comply with environmental considerations, many shops turn to recycling programs for scrap and worn tooling. With increasing consumption of non-renewable raw materials and to help counteract the effects of high carbide prices, some manufacturers are providing recycling programs to help companies increase productivity and efficiency.
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Are You Medical OEM Material?
As the baby-boomer generation inexorably falls apart, screws, plates, rods and less invasive surgical tools are increasingly available to put "humpty" back together again. A question for many precision part makers is, "How do I get into the medical machining game?" To find out, we talked to a major OEM about its supplier selection criteria.
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The Art And Science Of Precision Cutting Tools
Machine tools become faster and more stable while cutting tools get tougher, longer lasting and geometrically more complex. I visited a premier German cutting tool manufacturer to look at the state of the art of making carbide cutting tools that complement today’s machine tool technology.
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Turning Centers Improve Efficiency For OEM
When Dairy Pipe Lines (United Kingdom), a hygienic valve manufacturer, wanted to incorporate additional CNC turning efficiency and capacity into its Saffron Walden (Essex, England) facility, it selected a trio of Kia turning centers from Hyundai-Kia Machine (East Rutherford, New Jersey).
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Technical Member Profile: Index Corporation
The Index Group, located in Esslingen, Germany, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of precision turning and multitask machine tools. Its products include single- and multi-spindle equipment, as well as sliding headstock machines.
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Economical Production With A CNC Sliding Headstock Automatic
Builders face constant pressure to deliver equipment that can reduce machining times and labor costs. An approach to help reduce cycle times is one-pass machining, which eliminates the time and expense of refixturing parts for secondary processing and eliminates inaccuracies that can occur when parts are refixtured.
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Precision Machining Industry Transforms To Serve Population Dynamics
Demand for the medical implants in the United States is expected to grow by 11 percent annually through 2007. The market for knee and hip replacements alone in Europe is expected to grow from 1.4 billion U.S. dollars to more than 1.83 billion in 2010. At the heart of each of these procedures is a manufactured, precision-engineered implantable component, the ultimate application of machining technology to improving human quality of life.
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Critical Skills For Effectiveness In Today's New World--Part 2 of 4
The four trends that define the differences between yesterday's and today's way of maximizing effectiveness include the following: 1) Solo to team performance; 2) Stand-alone company to link in supply chain; 3) From problem detection to process failure prevention; and 4) From managing data to empowering decision making. This month's article looks at the second of these trends.
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Process-Oriented Measuring Technology For Turning Tools
Because tools create the geometric shape of a workpiece, the accuracy of this shape is dependent on the position of the cutting edge to the workpiece. Therefore, the position of the cutting edge should be identified and maintained as precisely as possible. One reliable method for achieving the accuracy needed is through the use of a laser system for tool setting.
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