Chris Koepfer

Chris Koepfer Editor Emeritus

Going Global In Illinois

Like a handful of other foreign-based manufacturers, Ugitech “gets it.” Processing stainless steel in the United States puts the product closer to the market, allows them to be more responsive to demand and eliminates a potential bottleneck in their production back home. I see this as a win-win situation.

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Top Down—Top Heavy

Does your company’s culture resemble Adolphus’ court? Or can you, when necessary, tell the king that he’s not wearing any clothes or say, “hey, those are way too many guns.”

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Cutting Tools

Improved Indexable Insert Stability

Sandvik Coromant will introduce its iLock at the September EMO exposition in Germany as a way of improving indexable insert stablility when cutting metal.  

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Remembering A Classic Colleague

Don Wood, editor of Automatic Machining magazine, was one of these rare amalgams. Don passed away on May 13 and according to his son, Wayne, worked on the magazine until a few weeks before his death. He was 87. To me, taking it to the wire is fitting for a man who spent 50 years preparing issue after issue for a readership that truly looked forward to each issue.  

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Parts Cleaning

Continuous, In-Process Washing System For High-Production Machines

Dan Walters' invention is a part washing machine that attaches directly to the machine tool while occupying about 10 square feet of floor space. The Wheelie Washer is a conveyor-like system that takes the parts through various chemicals and solutions, removing the oil from each part and drying them.

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Trunnion Trends

With strong roots solving manufacturing issues in Europe, rotary transfer machine technology is finding justification solving similar issues in North America. It’s still not for everybody, but increasingly, with technological advances in capability and flexibility, it may make more sense for shops on this side of the pond.

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Miscellany

I found that no one topic seemed to jump out at me. I think my muse is on vacation in Greece. So instead, I’ve chosen to cover several things churning in my mind from the first half of the year to help clear my cerebral deck.

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Running A Good Race

For this Missouri job shop, it’s not about what you call the machine tool, it’s about how you use it. The shop considers multi-spindle turning as simply using more than one spindle in various configurations best suited to the production requirements of the application.

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Fasnacht: Those Zany Europeans!

Earlier this year, as part of two separate press tours, I got to see a different side of the Germans and the Swiss. Through the years and after many trips to both countries, I’ve seen the working side of these people, and it is very impressive; they are very good manufacturers. On these recent trips, I saw them at play, and it was most revealing.

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Take Time For Meal Time

Too often we are in such a hurry to get one task finished so we can move to the next task that we forget that a company is not monolithic—it is made up of individuals. Communication with people over a meal or a coffee can perhaps provide cement that binds a group more tightly together. Making parts is something we need to do to survive. Making time for each other may be a means to help us thrive.

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Automation

Consider A Programmable Guide Bushing

An example of the "set it and forget it" guide bushing adjustment is a programmable guide bushing available on Traub’s TNL series by Index Corp. It offers the ability to program the CNC to provide a series of guide bushing pressures on the bar based on dynamic conditions.

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Complete In One Chucking

Compared to barstock, castings, forgings and sawn blanks present a different set of workhandling challenges for production machining. This article looks at how Hydromat Inc. is meeting these challenges on its rotary transfer machines with engineered indexing workholders.

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