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Media
Manufacturing Engineering Magazine
Tooling & Workholding for Today’s Shop Floor Spring 2018
Tooling & Workholding for Today’s Shop Floor Spring 2018
New Tool Designs Power Faster-Than-Ever Cutting
April 23, 2018
Industry veterans often say the makers of machine tools, cutting tools, CAD/CAM software, and other components push each other in an endless feedback loop to deliver ever faster cutting speeds in ever harder materials. Lately it’s the cutting tool manufacturers who seem to be leading the charge. Let’s see what they’re up to.
By
Ed Sinkora
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Big, Heavy, Awkward Parts Need Workholding, Too
April 23, 2018
If you’ve ever seen industrial wind turbine components on the back of a flatbed truck rolling down the highway, you have a good idea of what a large, heavy, difficult-to-handle workpiece is. For example, with a single blade on the GE 1.5 mW turbine being almost as long as a football field, the entire blade assembly weighs about the same as 36 small cars.
By
Ilene Wolff
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
When the Going Gets Tough, Tough Toolholders Get Going
April 23, 2018
As machining has evolved, toolholders have advanced to include rigid, secure systems with anti-pullout protection. These advanced systems are needed to take on difficult-to-machine materials, such as titanium and heat-resistant superalloys (HRSA), and accommodate ambitious removal rates and long tool overhangs. Think of them as insurance against tool pullout and breakage—a situation nobody wants.
By
Candace Roulo
Managing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Shrink-Fit Toolholder Offers Consistency When Setting Tools
April 23, 2018
Shrink-fit toolholding is a simple concept—an induction coil is adjusted and fits over the top of the toolholder. The induction coil heats the toolholder end of the shrinker, expanding the inside diameter, which opens the engagement bore (IDs of shrink-fit toolholders are smaller than the shank diameter of the cutting tool).
By
Candace Roulo
Managing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Workholding Solutions to Reduce Costs, Increase Throughput
April 24, 2018
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.
By
Robert Puhr
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Replaceable Tip Drills Offer Versatile Design Improvements
April 24, 2018
Since their introduction about 20 years ago, replaceable-tip drills have become increasingly accurate and cost-effective alternatives to solid carbide units.
By
Geoff Giordano
Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Digital Tool Data Refines Machining, Helps Industry 4.0 Find Its Way
April 24, 2018
It’s said you don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. For Industry 4.0 and advanced manufacturing, digital libraries provide that map.
By
Bill Koenig
Senior Editor,
SME Media
Smart Manufacturing
Tooling & Workholding
Shop Solutions
Siemens’ Digital Process Chain Cuts Oil Field Rock Bit Down to Size
April 25, 2018
DMG Mori’s entry-level, compact DMU 50 five-axis machining center is producing an oil field rock bit from a 440 lb (199.5-kg) 1045 grade steel workpiece, 8″ (203-mm) diameter by 8″ (203-mm) high, for a major upstream oil industry supplier. The result using Siemens full CAD/CAM-CNC digital process chain was better tool life, a higher degree of accuracy, and overall production efficiencies.
By
Jim Lorincz
- Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Energy
BIG Kaiser Tooling Upgrade Wins Races for Team Penske
April 25, 2018
On race day, everybody sees the race on TV, but behind the scenes there’s a competition going on between shops where time is everything, according to Matt Gimbel, Team Penske’s production manager.
By
Jim Lorincz
- Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Tooling & Workholding
High-Torque Retention Knob Gives Job Shop Spindles The Competitive Edge
April 25, 2018
Despite the addition of more than 750,000 CNC mills in the past 15 years in the US, CNC machining job shops often hover at the bottom of the totem pole, where there’s little room for error as most bids are won by a 1–2% price variance.
By
Jim Lorincz
- Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Tooling & Workholding
Upfront
Expert Opinion
Business Outlook for Tooling, Workholding on the Shop Floor Is Bright
April 27, 2018
Manufacturers are always looking for signs of what the economy and the business outlook have in store for them. Since the election of President Trump and, more recently, passage of the tax reform law in December, confidence among businesses of all sizes has been overwhelmingly positive.
By
Jim Lorincz
- Contributing Editor,
SME Media
Expert Opinion
Tooling & Workholding
Advanced Manufacturing Now
Expert Opinion
Perfect Analogy for Electrical Safety Principles
April 26, 2018
Driving to work, deep in thought, pondering the reasons companies use Permanent Electrical Safety Devices (PESDs) in their electrical safety programs, I nearly slammed into the back of a bus stopped at a railroad crossing. With a pounding heart and a rush of adrenaline, it hit me like a freight train—both electrical energy and freight trains yield to no one.
By
Phil Allen
- CEO and Founder,
Grace Engineered Products
Expert Opinion
Motorized Vehicles
Tooling & Workholding
The Basics of Live Tooling
April 27, 2018
Live Tooling, as the name implies, is specifically driven by the CNC control and the turret of various spindle and powered sub-spindle configurations on CNC lathes to perform various operations while the workpiece remains in orientation to the main spindle.
By
Preben Hansen
- President,
Heimatec Inc.
Tooling & Workholding
Controls
How Collaborations Expedite Tooling Progress
April 27, 2018
Ongoing exchange between CAD/CAM software technology developers and cutting tool manufacturers is an excellent illustration of how technology collaborations can create productivity gains in manufacturing. Several examples involve our company and cutting tool manufacturers.
By
Stas Mylek
- Senior Product Specialist,
CNC Software
Controls
Viewpoints
Controls
Better Together: Machinists and Programmers
April 27, 2018
Spend enough time on shop floors and you’ll learn about the two different groups of skilled workers that reside there. On one side are the old-school machinists—skilled craftspeople who use their hands, eyes and ears to guide machine tools. On the other side are the programmers and engineers.
By
Jamie Goettler
- Senior Director, Metalworking Sales and Innovation,
MSC Industrial Supply Co.
Controls
Workforce Development