The most important step in digitizing any manufacturing or supply chain process is analysis of the ROI and business case and being able to demonstrate success to company leaders.
Industrial computed tomography is a cost-effective, reliable way to meet intensifying
requirements for qualifying both the design of aerospace parts and the materials needed for their construction.
Capture 3D becomes part of the ZEISS Industrial Quality & Research segment, following ZEISS acquisition of GOM, makers of the ATOS systems Capture 3D resells.
Metal diffusion bonding is an essential joining method for achieving a high-purity interface when two similar metals require superior structural integrity. The process involves applying high temperature, and pressure to metals mated together in a hot press causes the atoms on solid metallic surfaces to intersperse and bond.
The right tooling can have a profound effect on a shop’s competitiveness and future growth.
For Dale Mickelson, Yasda product manager at Methods Machine Tools Inc. (Sudbury, MA) and author of several books on hard milling, tackling heat-resistant superalloys (HRSAs) requires the perfect combination of machine, workholding, tooling, tool paths and coolant.
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.
In a perfect CNC world, the first part is always a good one. There’s no need for extra blanks or barstock. Setup times are only as long as is needed to swap out a few tools and load a new program. There’s never a crash, never the need to reprogram an inefficient bit of code. The operator just pushes the green button and out pops a finished workpiece minutes or hours later.
At the Nirvana Machine Shop on planet Perfection, every workpiece is clamped to a custom-built fixture mounted on a dedicated machine tool. Each workpiece is dimensionally identical to the one before and the one after. All the fixtures are totally automatic—instantly positioning, clamping, machining, inspecting, and releasing the part with the ultimate precision.
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."