TOOLING

Ganassi shop photo
Cutting Tools

Cutting Tool OEM Races To Supply Productivity Gains

As the owner and president of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, he oversees teams on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series as well as the Indy Racing League and Automobile Racing Club of America circuits. Throughout Mr. Ganassi’s entire career as an owner, he has continued to raise the innovation bar with a constant search for a better way to do things.

Workholding

How's Your Short Game?

Let's review the advantages of spindle-length bar feeders.

Hainbuch Clamping Exchange
Workholding

Faster Change-Overs Allow Focus On Machining

A creative Midwestern shop shows that its productivity edge runs all the way down to its relationships with vendor partners. With the right clamping and centering device, the company has been able to reduce workpiece change-over times by as much as 50 percent while improving rigidity and precision.

Cutting Tools

Thread Rolling: A Non-Metalcutting Operation

Thread rolling is unlike a typical metalworking operation in that it does not cut metal. Instead, it forms a thread into a mirror image of a roller die.

Aero Precision shop floor
Workholding

Direct Drive Rotary System Reduces Cycle Time

In the early 1990s, Mr. Langlois decided to set up a shop specializing in close-tolerance aerospace parts. A friend of his recommended that he consider a colleted-spindle turning machine and suggested that he look into Hardinge lathes. Mr. Langlois purchased a used Hardinge HNC lathe and began making aircraft landing gear bushings.

OD turing
Cutting Tools

From Virtual To Reality

This article tells how a shop used infomation available on the Web to solve a tough production problem on its shop floor.

Collets on Hydromat
Workholding

Specialty Company Knows Its Collets

For almost 3 years Mr. Bouchard struggled with a machine application designed to produce life-critical airbag parts for Arrow Machine’s primary client in the automotive industry. With the help of RH Collets, a manufacturer of specialty workholding and related components for Hydromats and other machinery, Mr. Bouchard is solving the problem—not with one new part but with a series of solutions.

Cutting Tools

Medical Edge: Thread Whirling

When my father slipped and fell on an icy parking lot 5 years ago and broke his hip, I would have never thought that someday I would be writing about how the screws surgically implanted in his hip bone were created on a metalworking machine. During the healing process, Dad had some irritation problems with the scre

Chip removal must be reliable.
Bar Feeders

Successful Untended Operation

Machine tool accessories can make or break untended operation.
#metalworkingfluids

hydraulic plugs
Cutting Tools

No-Burr Threading Helps Shop Compete

With the switch from a ground top-notch tool to a pressed Ingersoll threading form tool on one high-volume job, Warren Screw Machine eliminated 2 minutes of hand deburring per part. Not incidentally, the company also lopped 20 seconds per part off the threading cycle.