Machine Tools & Metal Working Blog

Tool presetting can offer major benefits in terms of reduced set-up times and scrap rates. Yet many companies seem reluctant to make the investment. So is this something you can comment on from experience? Is it a procedure your company has introduced, and if so, has it made a real impact on set-up times and scrap rates? In short is it a worthwhile investment? Let us know.

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Machine Tools & Metal Working, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Machine Tools & Metal Working today.

One machine shop implemented a comprehensive shop floor management software system. Something it helped make possible was close correlation of employees' effectiveness with their weekly paycheck. Is that a good idea? Does a similar system operate in your plant? If the performance of one of your immediate colleagues is likely to affect your pay, would it make you more likely to help them if they had work problems?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Machine Tools & Metal Working, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Machine Tools & Metal Working today.

Our main story in this issue highlights the increasing potential for the use of minimal lubrication techniques in metal sawing. But it is an approach that can be implemented in all forms of metal cutting. Have you tried it? If so, how successful have you been? Have you been able to replace continuous drenching of workpieces with intermittent drip-feeding of cutting fluids? Or is it an approach that you have found unworkable?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Machine Tools & Metal Working, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Machine Tools & Metal Working today.

Additive manufacturing - once entirely confined to polymer materials - is now becoming established as a metals fabrication technology as well. So has it made it onto your shop floor? If so, what types of jobs is it used for? Where is it better than and where still not as appropriate as conventional metal cutting? Do you think it will become a commonplace metals technology or just a niche technique for smaller parts?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Machine Tools & Metal Working, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Machine Tools & Metal Working today.

The new initiative from the SME aims to help manufacturers recruit people with appropriate skills over the next decade. One strand of activity it urges is close cooperation with schools and colleges to help ensure that youngsters both want to enter industry and gain the skills to make companies want to employ them. So do students visit your company to learn the realities of industry or do people from your company visit local schools? If so is it a worthwhile exercise? Can youngsters be persuaded that manufacturing is "cool?"

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Machine Tools & Metal Working, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Machine Tools & Metal Working today.

One of the items in the Metal Forming section in this issue highlights how modern monitoring techniques can help optimize a long-established process like metal stamping. What is your experience of this approach to process improvement? Has the application of some neat bit of up-to-date technology helped solve a previously intractable problem on your shop floor? What is the best bit of retrofitting that you have seen?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Machine Tools & Metal Working, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Machine Tools & Metal Working today.