Smart factory systems benefit from improved technologies, as well as proven applications.
Engineering information is both pervasive and essential within manufacturing plants. And, it changes constantly as a result of maintenance-related adjustments, alterations in plant processes, or the swap-out of components.
Much has been written about potential applications for 5G. But a less well known application exists in the aerospace and defense industry—that pertains to manufacturing processes.
Horn Technology Days, hosted by Paul Horn GmbH every two years, is a celebration of manufacturing and what is possible with modern cutting tool technology. This year’s event coincided with the company's 50 year anniversary and featured three days of technical sessions, factory tours and practical demonstrations of the company’s manufacturing products.
In my capacity as the Chair of the Council of the Manufacturing USA institute directors, I often get asked about trends in U.S. advanced manufacturing.
Aerospace machining encompasses machines small and large. These range from the Tornos SwissNano to the Makino MAG3, as Rich Sullivan put it. He is the OEM manager for Iscar Metals Inc., Arlington, Texas.
For machine shops in a competitive global marketplace, keeping spindles running and making product is the only way to stay in business. Still, adding a new piece of equipment, even with the promise of improving the efficiency of your existing ones, may be a difficult sell to management.
As with any digital transformation process, the devil is in the details, and there are many potential pitfalls that can derail projects.
Swiss-style machine tools can be a good choice for making complex parts. On the downside, however, Swiss machining itself has a reputation of being complex—and, therefore, more difficult to master than standard machining.
Adaptive Milling. Dynamic Motion. hyperMILL. Profit Milling. VoluMill. Waveform machining. If you’re one of the lucky people who machines parts for a living, chances are about 50-50 that you’re using one of these or a comparable high-performance programming technology.
