Electropolishing Automation April 1, 2012 Today’s products require high finishes, burr-free edges, freedom from contamination, and often close tolerances. Electropolishing provides all of those conditions and more in a matter of seconds for many metal parts. It is a process that has been used for more than a hundred years. It is widely known and the science is widely discussed, but its ability to run job shop lots and high-precision high-volume parts in the same equipment makes it a bit unique.
CAD/CAM Software Advances February 1, 2012 Speeding up programming tasks on CAD/CAM software ranks at the top of machine shops’ requirements when faced with making quality parts on a deadline. The more efficient a shop’s toolpaths are, the less chance that any programming problems result in wasting very expensive machine time on the shop floor.
Automation For Medical November 1, 2011 While robots have been deployed in high-profile surgical applications in recent years, using a specialized apparatus like the da Vinci surgical system, the majority of industrial or commercial medical uses for robots are somewhat more commonplace.
Simulation for the Shop Floor June 1, 2011 Highly realistic 3-D simulation software can greatly improve manufacturing processes, lending sophisticated visualization tools that help increase manufacturing productivity and product quality.
The Digital Factory: Where Are We in the Rapid Evolution of Industry 4.0? June 11, 2018 As OEMs and suppliers alike wrestle to convert Big Data to Smart Data, Industry 4.0 and digitalization, plus cloud-based technologies for production monitoring and management, how do manufacturers best work together with end-users to achieve today’s production targets and plan future facilities?
Taming Complexity, Variation in Automotive Engineering with PLE, Digital Twin June 19, 2018 Automotive engineering has never had so much complexity to address. Producing millions of vehicles per year is a daunting feat.
Manufacturing Discovers Trump Doesn’t Run a Cafeteria June 12, 2018 US manufacturers are discovering the policies of the Trump administration aren’t like a cafeteria. You don’t get choose which policies you want.
Aerospace Machining uses Full CAD/CAM/CAE CNC Capability May 4, 2018 DMG Mori (Hoffman Estates, IL) delivers manufacturing technologies to aerospace OEMs and production shops supported by a package of CAD/CAM/CNC hardware, software, and engineering services from Siemens Industry Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) for aerospace machining. A long-time partner with Siemens, DMG Mori builds a variety of conventional chip-cutting and ultrasonic machining centers.
Optical Metrology in Three Dimensions May 29, 2018 Basic trends in modern manufacturing are driving growth in 3D optical metrology. “One is the highly complex and high-tech material that manufacturers are using today. For example, in the aerospace turbine blade market, they simply cannot touch the part like they used to—the surface finish of the material is too readily affected by any kind of contact metrology."
Automating Verticals: The Time is Right for Every Type of Shop May 29, 2018 Whether we’re talking about linear pallet systems, simple pallet changers, or robots, it’s clear there is a huge opportunity to automate US machining operations. While horizontal machines are automated more often than verticals, vertical machining centers are more prevalent than horizontals so the greatest untapped potential is in automating verticals.