Smith Machine Works of Wichita, Kansas, is a 32-employee aircraft industry job shop founded in 1955 and incorporated in 1991. The majority of the company's business involves supplying small aluminum parts (typically less than 300 pounds and smaller than 2 feet by 4 feet by 1 foot) to Cessna-Raytheon and other manufacturers. To machine these aircraft parts, the shop uses two Y-axis lathes, four dual-axis lathes and nine vertical mills.
One issue the company was dealing with was scheduling. Smith had its own tracking system. "It was just a homemade setup," says Smith Machine's owner Chris Lette, "and we were having scheduling problems on our machines. We were also having problems tracking parts."
As a result, two Smith employees began gathering information on shop management software systems. Their year-long search culminated in a visit to the 1998 IMTS tradeshow, where they saw the Visual EstiTrack system from Henning Industrial Software (Hudson, Ohio).
"We had looked at quite a few systems, and we were impressed by this software's capabilities, so I made the decision to go ahead," Mr. Lette recalls. Smith installed the software in late 1999. "We've been very happy with what it has done so far. Previously, all our job tracking information was written on time cards. By eliminating the hand calculation required to determine how much was spent on each job, we experienced enough savings to more than pay for the software in a year." Because Smith bought the software primarily for its scheduling features, the savings derived from its job-tracking functions came as a pleasant surprise. These features were also important to meet documentation requirements from the shop's aircraft customers. Mr. Lette says that aircraft manufacturers must be able to trace all finished products back to the raw material stage, documenting who handled parts during production, what operations were executed and when they took place. With the new system, Smith's operators simply scan a bar code before and after each operation, and the software automatically charges their time to the corresponding job. Thus, the operation performed, the number of parts completed, the operator's name and duration of the job are all recorded.
It's also much easier for Mr. Lette to retrieve this information than it was previously. If a customer calls with a question about how a part was produced or how a job is progressing, Mr. Lette can find the answers with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks instead of rummaging through paperwork. Thus, he often tells his customers what they want to know immediately instead of having to look up the information and call them back.
"I can instantly find out where a customer's job is and how long it should take to finish. As a result, I can give them a good shipping date. We have a lot of people calling who want to know when they will receive their parts. Now, we're able to make our customers happy, because we can tell them where their parts are and when they'll get them," Mr. Lette explains.
With the system installed on the company's network, Mr. Lette says the information recorded in Visual EstiTrack is available to anyone in the shop who needs it. He also notes that, because information now moves around the shop more readily, jobs also move onto the shop schedule faster and easier. Additionally, Mr. Lette is impressed by the software's drag-and-drop scheduling module that helps juggle jobs to meet deadlines while it shows schedulers how their adjustments affect the daily or weekly plan.
The software allows schedulers to drag jobs from their current locations and drop them at icons for different workstations. When the schedule is altered, the software automatically recalculates the number of hours scheduled on each workstation affected by the change. If the scheduled hours exceed a predetermined capacity, the workstation icon turns red, indicating an overload that requires either a schedule change or overtime work.
"Drag-and-drop scheduling lets you move jobs to meet your schedule, so you can squeeze in a job that's hotter. That way, you can get the most from your machines and keep customers happy," Mr. Lette explains. "To see how it will affect other jobs on our schedule, we re-arrange jobs to meet delivery dates and customer requests. You can tell right away if you have open time on a machine, or whether you must work overtime or juggle jobs to meet delivery dates."
This instant feedback helps Smith Machine improve its delivery schedule. Mr. Lette attributes this improvement to shop managers' access to the company's schedule and material inventory. Hc bclicvcs these improvements in efficiency will continue, allowing his shop to win more jobs.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Machine tool trade with Japan and Taiwan
The President has directed that the US Trade Representative negotiate a limited extension of the voluntary restraint agreements (VRAs) with Japan and Taiwan on machine tools. These VRAs were negotiated in 1986 for national security reasons and were scheduled to expire on December 31, 1991.
Import restrictions on machining centers, computer-controlled lathes, computer-controlled punching and shearing machine tools, and computer-controlled milling machine tools will be removed progressively over a 2-year period beginning in January 1992.
To allow sufficient time for negotiations with concerned countries over the phase-out schedule, we are requesting that Japan and Taiwan extend the existing VRA restrictions on machining centers, computer-controlled lathes, computer-controlled punching and shearing machine tools, and computer controlled milling machine tools, scheduled to expire on December 31, 1991, for an additional 30 days.The Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the cabinet-level Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, will give special focus to ways to promote machine tools exports.
* US export control regulations will be reviewed to ensure that restrictions on machine tools are kept to the minimum consistent with national security.
* The Secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and Labor will designate officials at the Assistant Secretary level to work together to monitor the industry's performance and to consult regularly with industry representatives.
* The Secretary of Labor will help the machine tool industry improve technical training, human resource management, and the utilization of new and emerging technologies.
* The Secretaries of Commerce and Energy will examine which research and development efforts in the national laboratories could benefit the domestic machine tool industry and will recommend appropriate investment and technology transfer to realize such benefit.
* The Secretaries of Commerce and Defense will continue to implement the Domestic Action Plan of programs to support the revitalization of the US machine tool industry. Key elements of the Domestic Action Plan are as follows:
-- Support for the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (amounting to $50 million during fiscal years 1988-91); and
-- Support by the Defense Department's Manufacturing Technology (MANTECH) research and development program. More than $33 million has been spent for research on machine tools and related technologies over the past 3 years. Funding for related technologies is estimated at $82 million over the FY 1991-95 period.
* The Secretary of Commerce will continue efforts under the US-Japan Cooperation Plan, which was begun in May 1990 to help promote US products to Japanese machine tool users and their subsidiaries in the United States.
Import restrictions on machining centers, computer-controlled lathes, computer-controlled punching and shearing machine tools, and computer-controlled milling machine tools will be removed progressively over a 2-year period beginning in January 1992.
To allow sufficient time for negotiations with concerned countries over the phase-out schedule, we are requesting that Japan and Taiwan extend the existing VRA restrictions on machining centers, computer-controlled lathes, computer-controlled punching and shearing machine tools, and computer controlled milling machine tools, scheduled to expire on December 31, 1991, for an additional 30 days.The Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the cabinet-level Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, will give special focus to ways to promote machine tools exports.
* US export control regulations will be reviewed to ensure that restrictions on machine tools are kept to the minimum consistent with national security.
* The Secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and Labor will designate officials at the Assistant Secretary level to work together to monitor the industry's performance and to consult regularly with industry representatives.
* The Secretary of Labor will help the machine tool industry improve technical training, human resource management, and the utilization of new and emerging technologies.
* The Secretaries of Commerce and Energy will examine which research and development efforts in the national laboratories could benefit the domestic machine tool industry and will recommend appropriate investment and technology transfer to realize such benefit.
* The Secretaries of Commerce and Defense will continue to implement the Domestic Action Plan of programs to support the revitalization of the US machine tool industry. Key elements of the Domestic Action Plan are as follows:
-- Support for the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (amounting to $50 million during fiscal years 1988-91); and
-- Support by the Defense Department's Manufacturing Technology (MANTECH) research and development program. More than $33 million has been spent for research on machine tools and related technologies over the past 3 years. Funding for related technologies is estimated at $82 million over the FY 1991-95 period.
* The Secretary of Commerce will continue efforts under the US-Japan Cooperation Plan, which was begun in May 1990 to help promote US products to Japanese machine tool users and their subsidiaries in the United States.
Machine tool considerations come to the surface - Cover Story
When all the design, NC code generation and fixturing are complete, it's a machine tool that gets down to the business of contoured surfaces: cutting. Here are some things to consider about the machine you choose for the job.
A trip through any supermarket provides more than enough evidence to explain why machining of contoured surfaces is a growing segment of manufacturing. For example, each of the thousands of uniquely shaped plastic containers, found along the miles of aisles, gets its shape from a mold. And the mold gets its shape from a machine tool. It's estimated that 60 percent of all parts made today--a percentage that's growing--are made from plastic.
But there are more contoured surfaces to machine than just molds, although as our supermarket tour illustrates, they do make up a large chunk of the surface machining universe. Manufacturing is applying contoured surface machining technology across many industries such as automotive, power generation, aerospace, die and mold making, and health care.
Design considerations that take into account form as well as function increase the demands that are placed on manufacturers for contoured surfaces. Ergonomics--the physical interface between people and equipment--is also a force behind smoothing the square edges of many products. These design directives are showing up in virtually all manufactured products, whether they are made fromThis article is about machine tools that make such design a reality--specifically, machine tools that sculpt contoured surfaces--in metal. The end product of that sculpting may be a stainless steel mold and core for a plastic bottle, a medical implant or a highly contoured titanium spar to strengthen an aircraft fuselage. But without machine tools that are capable of efficiently performing such complex machining, the molds and spars themselves--as well as the end products that rely on them--would be much more costly.
To get a sense about the most important equipment-related issues, we spoke to LeBlond Makino (Mason, Ohio) and Cincinnati Milacron (Cincinnati, Ohio) about their surface cutting machines. While each builder approaches problems associated with machining surfaces somewhat differently, their customer goals are identical--machine more accurately to reduce labor and time spent doing non-value-added benchwork, thereby increasing throughput and quality.
Machining Surfaces 101
Probably the most basic requirement for machining surfaces is a machine tool that can adequately manipulate a cutter to impart the desired shape onto a raw workpiece. In other words, it needs the ability to perform simultaneous axis moves. While there are techniques for doing surfaces with less than three axes, we're going to concentrate on contour machining using at least Cartesian coordinates (X-Y-Z) and up to five axes--all capable of independent and simultaneous movement--linear as well as rotary.
The machining process for cutting a contoured surface is complicated not only by the rise and fall of the surface but also by the relatively small-diameter cutting tool that's used. On a 12-inch-wide flat surface, for example, two passes of a six-inch face mill will machine the surface. A 12-inch contoured surface, using a 3/4-inch ballnose end mill, may take 98 passes to cover the same area, because the ballnose design cuts a width that is a fraction of the tool's 3/4-inch diameter. And generally, surface machining is further divided into two operations: roughing and finishing.
In mold and die shops, roughing accounts for about 15 percent of the total machining time of a workpiece. While roughing may only use about 15 percent of machining time, it removes the majority of material, leaving just enough stock for the second operation--finishing.
Finish machining on a surface doesn't take up the other 85 percent of cycle time for producing a surface. Actually the percentage is closer to 50. Of the 35 percent that's left, 25 percent of that is hand machining (benchwork) needed to finish the surface. The last 10 percent is called tryout in the mold and die industry, which equates to measurement or verification in other surface applications.
Many shops perform roughing operations and finishing operations on different machines. Historically, a big beefy machine tool that didn't move very fast but sure could hog metal was the roughing machine. For finishing, the workpiece, mold or die would be moved to another lighter, more nimble, machine tool to remove the remaining stock.
A trip through any supermarket provides more than enough evidence to explain why machining of contoured surfaces is a growing segment of manufacturing. For example, each of the thousands of uniquely shaped plastic containers, found along the miles of aisles, gets its shape from a mold. And the mold gets its shape from a machine tool. It's estimated that 60 percent of all parts made today--a percentage that's growing--are made from plastic.
But there are more contoured surfaces to machine than just molds, although as our supermarket tour illustrates, they do make up a large chunk of the surface machining universe. Manufacturing is applying contoured surface machining technology across many industries such as automotive, power generation, aerospace, die and mold making, and health care.
Design considerations that take into account form as well as function increase the demands that are placed on manufacturers for contoured surfaces. Ergonomics--the physical interface between people and equipment--is also a force behind smoothing the square edges of many products. These design directives are showing up in virtually all manufactured products, whether they are made fromThis article is about machine tools that make such design a reality--specifically, machine tools that sculpt contoured surfaces--in metal. The end product of that sculpting may be a stainless steel mold and core for a plastic bottle, a medical implant or a highly contoured titanium spar to strengthen an aircraft fuselage. But without machine tools that are capable of efficiently performing such complex machining, the molds and spars themselves--as well as the end products that rely on them--would be much more costly.
To get a sense about the most important equipment-related issues, we spoke to LeBlond Makino (Mason, Ohio) and Cincinnati Milacron (Cincinnati, Ohio) about their surface cutting machines. While each builder approaches problems associated with machining surfaces somewhat differently, their customer goals are identical--machine more accurately to reduce labor and time spent doing non-value-added benchwork, thereby increasing throughput and quality.
Machining Surfaces 101
Probably the most basic requirement for machining surfaces is a machine tool that can adequately manipulate a cutter to impart the desired shape onto a raw workpiece. In other words, it needs the ability to perform simultaneous axis moves. While there are techniques for doing surfaces with less than three axes, we're going to concentrate on contour machining using at least Cartesian coordinates (X-Y-Z) and up to five axes--all capable of independent and simultaneous movement--linear as well as rotary.
The machining process for cutting a contoured surface is complicated not only by the rise and fall of the surface but also by the relatively small-diameter cutting tool that's used. On a 12-inch-wide flat surface, for example, two passes of a six-inch face mill will machine the surface. A 12-inch contoured surface, using a 3/4-inch ballnose end mill, may take 98 passes to cover the same area, because the ballnose design cuts a width that is a fraction of the tool's 3/4-inch diameter. And generally, surface machining is further divided into two operations: roughing and finishing.
In mold and die shops, roughing accounts for about 15 percent of the total machining time of a workpiece. While roughing may only use about 15 percent of machining time, it removes the majority of material, leaving just enough stock for the second operation--finishing.
Finish machining on a surface doesn't take up the other 85 percent of cycle time for producing a surface. Actually the percentage is closer to 50. Of the 35 percent that's left, 25 percent of that is hand machining (benchwork) needed to finish the surface. The last 10 percent is called tryout in the mold and die industry, which equates to measurement or verification in other surface applications.
Many shops perform roughing operations and finishing operations on different machines. Historically, a big beefy machine tool that didn't move very fast but sure could hog metal was the roughing machine. For finishing, the workpiece, mold or die would be moved to another lighter, more nimble, machine tool to remove the remaining stock.
Brazil looks outward: the United States is one of Brazil's prime targets for exporting machine tools
Brazil offers more than just futbol and Carnaval. That's the message machine tool builders showing their wares at the recent FEIMAFE show in Sao Paulo hoped would be instilled in show attendees. Modern Machine Shop was honored to be the only U.S. trade publication invited by ABIMAQ, the Brazilian machine tool builders association, to attend the tenth edition of this biennial show held in the third-largest city in the world.
The ABIMAQ group is a collection of various metalworking and fabrication equipment makers. Newton de Mello, president of Mello grinders, heads the association. Henry Goffaux, president of ThyssenKruypp Metalcutting Brazil, leads the association's chamber of machine tools, which is comprised solely by machine tool builders.
Brazil, which ranks 13th worldwide in machine tool production, started this year on a positive note. First quarter 2005 numbers show a 19.3 percent increase for overall machine tool sales in Brazil and a 177 percent increase in exports. According to ABIMAQ, the United States and Germany top the list in terms of export destinations, followed by Mexico, Spain and China. The automotive industry is currently one of the strongest sectors in terms of machine tool purchases. More than 63,000 attendees from 42 countries walked the aisles of the Anhembi Park Exhibition Hall during the show (both of these statistics are higher than the 2003 show edition). Many of the 1,342 exhibitors were the Latin-American arms of the top international metalworking companies. While the country is focusing on increasing exports, the importing of equipment continues to be an issue of dispute between the government and foreign machine tool builders wishing to sell to the Brazilian market. Importers are faced with what some consider exceedingly high tariffs, which were put in place to boost sales of Brazilian machine tools to the domestic market. Some Brazilians involved in metalworking think this is ultimately a tax on productive investment. In fact, one foreign machine tool builder went so far as to post a sign in protest of the high tariffs.
Most of the large Brazilian machine tool builders have their own sales offices in the United States. Many smaller companies sell through distributors. Some, including Mello Grinders, would like to sell into the United States, but say they have had difficulties locating a distributor that can serve the entire country, rather than just a single region.
The ABIMAQ group is a collection of various metalworking and fabrication equipment makers. Newton de Mello, president of Mello grinders, heads the association. Henry Goffaux, president of ThyssenKruypp Metalcutting Brazil, leads the association's chamber of machine tools, which is comprised solely by machine tool builders.
Brazil, which ranks 13th worldwide in machine tool production, started this year on a positive note. First quarter 2005 numbers show a 19.3 percent increase for overall machine tool sales in Brazil and a 177 percent increase in exports. According to ABIMAQ, the United States and Germany top the list in terms of export destinations, followed by Mexico, Spain and China. The automotive industry is currently one of the strongest sectors in terms of machine tool purchases. More than 63,000 attendees from 42 countries walked the aisles of the Anhembi Park Exhibition Hall during the show (both of these statistics are higher than the 2003 show edition). Many of the 1,342 exhibitors were the Latin-American arms of the top international metalworking companies. While the country is focusing on increasing exports, the importing of equipment continues to be an issue of dispute between the government and foreign machine tool builders wishing to sell to the Brazilian market. Importers are faced with what some consider exceedingly high tariffs, which were put in place to boost sales of Brazilian machine tools to the domestic market. Some Brazilians involved in metalworking think this is ultimately a tax on productive investment. In fact, one foreign machine tool builder went so far as to post a sign in protest of the high tariffs.
Most of the large Brazilian machine tool builders have their own sales offices in the United States. Many smaller companies sell through distributors. Some, including Mello Grinders, would like to sell into the United States, but say they have had difficulties locating a distributor that can serve the entire country, rather than just a single region.
Weld Inspection Tool has rotating video head
Able to handle tubes from 14-150 mm, INVIZ Site Weld Inspector utilizes rotating head for uninterrupted weld seam inspection. Head unit, which can be controlled from drum unit for remote operation, is illuminated by Xenon lighting source and offers 60[degrees] field of vision and adjustable focus. Head unit can be mounted on 8 or 15 m cable, and centering tool can be used to maintain position of head unit in tube. Machine can be used with optional LCD display unit.
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Orbimatic (UK) Limited, the manufacturer of technology leading Orbital TIG Welding equipment, have introduced the INVIZ Site Weld Inspector to their range of weld inspection products.
The INVIZ Site Weld Inspector can be used for inspection of tubes from 14mm to 150mm and includes a rotating head which allows for uninterrupted weld seam inspection. The rotating head can be controlled from the drum unit for remote operation.
The head unit is illuminated by a Xenon lighting source which is housed in the main drum unit which is also used for storage of the cable and the whole unit weighs only 12.3kg. The INVIZ Site Weld Inspector has an adjustable focus and gives a 60 degree field of vision. The head unit can be mounted on an 8m or 15m meter cable and a centring tool can be used to maintain the position of the head unit in the tube.
The adjustable focus and a large depth of view mean that the head unit only needs to be roughly centred in the tube for a good image quality.
The INVIZ Site Weld Inspector can be used with an optional LCD Display unit which can also be supplied with an image capture facility.
********************
Orbimatic (UK) Limited, the manufacturer of technology leading Orbital TIG Welding equipment, have introduced the INVIZ Site Weld Inspector to their range of weld inspection products.
The INVIZ Site Weld Inspector can be used for inspection of tubes from 14mm to 150mm and includes a rotating head which allows for uninterrupted weld seam inspection. The rotating head can be controlled from the drum unit for remote operation.
The head unit is illuminated by a Xenon lighting source which is housed in the main drum unit which is also used for storage of the cable and the whole unit weighs only 12.3kg. The INVIZ Site Weld Inspector has an adjustable focus and gives a 60 degree field of vision. The head unit can be mounted on an 8m or 15m meter cable and a centring tool can be used to maintain the position of the head unit in the tube.
The adjustable focus and a large depth of view mean that the head unit only needs to be roughly centred in the tube for a good image quality.
The INVIZ Site Weld Inspector can be used with an optional LCD Display unit which can also be supplied with an image capture facility.
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