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Automating the Grinding Process

Whether the process is cylindrical or profile grinding, automation, which can increase cycle time, throughput, consistency of part quality and taking real-time in-process measurements, is once again in demand. The reasons can be found in the benefits found in typical applications and the innovative and effective forms of automation available from machine builders like United Grinding Technologies Inc. (UGT; Miamisburg, OH), and their automation integrator of choice, Matrix Design Inc. (Elgin, IL).

Machining with Robots

Robotic machining technology has advanced to where it poses a serious alternative to metalcutting applications on more traditional machining centers. With the latest robotics equipment and related software, automation suppliers and robotic system integrators are gaining some traction using robots in many material-removal applications previously done only with machine tools.

Edge Finishing — Product Enhancement or Wasted Cost?

Edge finishing is a relatively new term in manufacturing. It’s a new and deeper focus on what many used to call deburring, edge honing, edge preparation, edge prepping, burring, chamfering, or edge blending. Edge finishing goes beyond any of those definitions. Deburring, which is often considered wasted effort by managers, wrongly carries a negative connotation. In reality, deburring and edge-finishing processes add many benefits to parts—they create highly desirable edge quality—the quality most products need.

Tool-Coating Advances Continue

New coatings are going the boutique route, using multiple layers and new materials to optimize for a particular application

Medical Implants in One Setup

Supplying the 700 level-one trauma centers in the US is an intensively competitive business. Not only must suppliers like Smith & Nephew Orthopedics Inc. (Memphis, TN) produce very fine surface finishes on implantable devices and surgical instruments made from difficult-to-machine materials, but they also must deliver quality products, as surgeons need them.

Bar Feeders Boost Turning Productivity

One of the most cost-effective ways to obtain the benefits of automation is by adding a bar feeder to a CNC lathe or other bar machine. Costing anywhere from about $10,000 to $40,000 depending on configuration, the devices can add hours of untended operating time for part volumes of a few hundred to tens of thousands.

How Advanced Computing Improves Machining

In this podcast, Scott Walker chairman of Mitsui Seki USA and Bruce Morey Senior Technical Editor for Manufacturing Engineering magazine discuss the most important technical trend affecting machining and manufacturing today—the rapid advance of computing.

Deburring in Forming and Fabricating: Part 1

Deburring can sometimes be overlooked in production planning, but it is a critical part of forming and fabricating processes. In this podcast, part one of two, Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with Dr. LaRoux Gillespie, a researcher, engineer, manager, consultant, and writer with an extensive knowledge base on deburring and finishing gained from decades of both hands-on manufacturing and academic work. Dr. Gillespie is also a past president of SME. In this episode, the discussion focuses on key issues that create burrs in casting/forging/ molding, blanking and bending operations, and the basics of deburring in three key areas: burr properties, acceptable deburring, and cost effective deburring.

Tools to Reduce Time and Money

Time is money and reliability is what a company’s reputation is built on. Chris Mahar, Associate Editor of Manufacturing Engineering, speaks with Mike Marr, Applications Technician at Hoffmann Group USA, about their Parabolic Performance Cutting (PPC) series and Garant Master Tap line. Discussing how manufacturers can reduce costs, provide process reliability and reduce machining times in both machining threads and 5-axis copy milling.