GWS Tool Group has acquired North American Tool Corp. (NATC). They represent the second add-on acquisition in 2020 for GWS.

Located in Northern Illinois, NATC supplies special taps, dies, and gages. From solid carbide threadmills to high-speed steel taps and thread gages, it delivers high-quality specialized threading tools purpose-built for applications across multiple industries, including automotive, aerospace, medical, and general engineering.

With the addition of NATC, GWS strengthens its offerings of multi-disciplinary, high-performance custom cutting tools.

“NATC is an exciting add for us,” says Rick McIntyre, GWS’ CEO. “Their customer service model is one of the best in the business and their focus in taps and threadmills fits in like a perfect puzzle piece to our dynamic and holistic offering. “

Curt Lansbery, NATC president and CEO, adds, “A customer-centric approach to business rooted in a commitment to quality and quick delivery marry perfectly with our model here at NATC. We have no doubt that this move to join GWS will be positive for our associates and will ensure the continued growth of the legacy that we have worked to develop.”

The team at NATC will continue to operate from the Illinois facility as a manufacturing arm of GWS Tool Group, and the company expresses intent toward continued investment in the facility, machinery, equipment, and human resources. 

As I wrap up the work week and prepare to head West for sunny California I wanted to make sure you saw some of the recent news in the industry. Manufacturing is busy, companies cutting chips and making parts. And, if you haven’t had a chance to read the current issue of the magazine, make sure you take a look at it today. Have a great weekend and hopefully I’ll connect with some of you at M&DM West in Anaheim. 

United Grinding rebuilds productivity life into 45,000hr machine

After 14 years in service, a Studer S40 grinding machine that had more than 45,000 hours of run time now produces precision components to tolerances it achieved when brand new. The Studer factory in Switzerland performed the rebuild that involved completely overhauling the machine, and while doing so, provided the machine’s owner LMT Kieninger with a loaner to ensure the customer’s production would continue uninterrupted.

A rebuild, or machine overhaul, makes sense not only economically, but also in the fact that operators continue to run a machine that is familiar to them for a seamless transition after the machine has been rebuilt.

© United Grinding | grinding.com

In the Studer factory, the rebuild specialists disassemble machines down to all their individual parts. The specialists completely refurbish guideways, overhaul the assemblies and replace all worn electrical cabinet components as well as all worn hydraulic and lubricating systems and valves. If spare parts are no longer available, Studer provides alternative solutions. For the final stages of the rebuild, the casting and components are sand-blasted and receive a fresh coat of paint. Once reassembled, the machine’s geometry is like that of a new machine.

"After our rebuild, we really noticed the difference,” says Heiko Braun, group manager of Cylindrical/Surface Grinding and Assembly at LMT Kieninger. “Since the overhaul, we have been grinding with the precision of a new machine. The rebuild process went without a hitch, and the investment has paid off because a 1,600mm grinder is worth its weight in gold for us."

If a customer wishes to expand a machine’s component range, the STUDER overhaul process can also include a retrofit during which a machine is modified to a customer’s particular requirements. This opens up new production possibilities on the same machine, which was the case with Ingold Tools AG.

Ingold Tools had been producing high-precision and complex parts for spindle, compressor, hydraulic and general machine manufacturing with 25 employees since 1946. Among its cylindrical grinders, the shop had an 18-year-old STUDER S21 with two external spindles and continuous fine adjustment of the turret wheelhead (B-axis fine).

Studer not only updated the S21 with the latest developments, but also retrofitted it to suit the needs of Ingold Tools AG. The cylindrical grinding machine now has an additional internal grinding spindle for internal cylindrical grinding and the relevant fixture for swiveling the tailstock into the park position. The machine also has a new spindle cooling system with its own circuit, as well as a hydraulically swiveling dressing unit. So that all grinding machines have the same mounting, the universal tool headstock was upgraded from MK4 to MK5.

According to Ingold Tools AG’s two managing directors Christoph Jenzer and Edgar Stich, the Studer retrofit resulted in them getting a second-hand machine with 50% new hardware. 

Renishaw appoints Denis Zayia to role of president

Precision engineering and manufacturing technologies company Renishaw Inc. appointed Denis Zayia to president of its USA operations.

© Renishaw | https://www.renishaw.com/

A 33-year industry veteran, Zayia started with Renishaw as coordinate measuring machine business manager in 1995 and became national sales manager for Industrial Metrology in 2008. His previous role was vice president sales and marketing, where he was responsible for Renishaw's line of industrial metrology and additive manufacturing products. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Zayia replaces Howard Salt, who, while turning over the responsibilities of day-to-day operations, will continue to provide valuable service to the organization as senior business manager Encoder Systems.

“Renishaw has been developing industry-changing products and end-to-end solutions for over 40 years,” Zayia says. “Our first product was a touch-trigger probe, which was developed to solve a manufacturing problem on Concorde engines. Today, we are helping manufacturers driven by the goals of Industry 4.0 with a wide range of technologies including additive, motion control, healthcare, spectroscopy, quality assurance and process control. I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to lead the organization through its next phase of growth.”

Guill offers medical machining, fabricating manufacturing services

Beyond being experts in extrusion tooling, Guill Tool and Engineering is a major industrial manufacturer providing medical machining, fabrication services. Guill offers 5-axis machining centers, high-precision machining, and full wire EDM capabilities with a 0.008” hole popper. Guill machines super alloys and exotic metals to close tolerances.

© Guill | https://www.guill.com/industries/medical/

Guill CNC milling machines offer resources needed to successfully fulfill the most challenging parts and tooling to keep equipment running efficiently and precisely. The precision of CNC turning is offered for quicker production that meets rigorous standards, regardless of the complexity of the parts. Guill multi-axis machines can produce a variety of sizes, complex engineering and geometric intricacies. Prototype machining and rapid manufacturing enable engineering to develop and innovate solutions with the ability to respond and modify parts. Super alloys and other materials are offered to benefit customers who need new solutions to remain competitive. Finally, wire EDM eliminates the force put on part surfaces. This protects intricate and fragile tooling, as well as providing higher tolerances and accuracy.

Machining capabilities range from small hole machining to 0.008” in diameter and machining material measuring up to 15" in all axes.

Engineers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated a flexible device that harvests the heat energy from the body to monitor health. The device surpasses all other flexible harvesters that use body heat as the sole energy source. The NC State researchers report significant enhancements to the flexible body heat harvester they first reported in 2017 (which we covered on Today’s Medical Developments website).

The harvesters use body heat energy to power wearable technologies – think of smart watches that measure your heart rate, blood oxygen, glucose, and other health parameters – that never need to have their batteries recharged. The technology relies on the same principles governing rigid thermoelectric harvesters that convert heat to electrical energy.

Flexible harvesters that conform to the human body are highly desired for use with wearable technologies. Mehmet Ozturk, an NC State professor of electrical and computer engineering and corresponding author a paper published in Applied Energy, mentions superior skin contact with flexible devices, as well as the ergonomic and comfort considerations to the device wearer, as the core reasons behind building flexible thermoelectric generators (TEGs).

The performance and efficiency of flexible harvesters, however, currently trail well behind rigid devices, which have been superior in their ability to convert body heat into usable energy.

"The flexible device reported in this paper is significantly better than other flexible devices reported to date and is approaching the efficiency of rigid devices, which is very encouraging," Ozturk says.

The proof-of-concept TEG originally reported in 2017 employed semiconductor elements that were connected electrically in series using liquid-metal interconnects made of EGaIn – a non-toxic alloy of gallium and indium. EGaIn provided both metal-like electrical conductivity and stretchability. The entire device was embedded in a stretchable silicone elastomer.

The upgraded device employs the same architecture but significantly improves the thermal engineering of the previous version, while increasing the density of the semiconductor elements responsible for converting heat into electricity. One of the improvements is an improved silicone elastomer that encapsulates the EGaIn interconnects.

"The key here is using a high thermal conductivity silicone elastomer doped with graphene flakes and EGaIn," Ozturk says.

The elastomer provides mechanical robustness against punctures while improving the device's performance.

"Using this elastomer allowed us to boost the thermal conductivity – the rate of heat transfer – by six times, allowing improved lateral heat spreading," he notes.

Ozturk adds that one of the strengths of the technology is that it eliminates the need for device manufacturers to develop new flexible, thermoelectric materials because it incorporates the very same semiconductor elements used in rigid devices. Ozturk says future work will focus on further improving the efficiencies of these flexible devices.

Yasaman Sargolzaeiaval, Viswanath P. Ramesh, Taylor V. Neumann, Veena Misra, Michael Dickey and Daryoosh Vashaee co-authored the paper. The group also has a recent patent on the technology.

Researchers at Purdue University have created a technology to address the thickness issue for wearable power generation. They developed a woven, thermoelectric flexible fabric that is potentially thinner than 1mm.

“This wearable power generator is well-suited for body or other heat recovery while also offering great mechanical flexibility and comfort,” says Kazuaki Yazawa, a research associate professor at Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue’s Discovery Park. “Furthermore, this film-based product is easier to manufacture compared to current manufacturing of thermoelectric modules.”

The flexible thermoelectric generator technology uses a polymer, or a variety of yarns woven into a polymer film or fabric sheet, with a printable pattern of thermoelectric materials. The generator takes heat from any curved surface it meets and converts it into a small amount of electricity.

Punched holes incorporated with the printed pattern allow an electric insulated thread to pass between the two sides to properly connect the hot and cold side surfaces. The 3D structure then becomes similar to conventional rigid or solid thermoelectric power generator modules.

“There are several potential areas of application for this technology for both humans and animals,” Yazawa says. “It can be used for biomonitoring humans or animals, along with applications for industrial machining where the unreachable curved surface can be used for sensing and machine health monitoring.”

The innovators are working with the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization to patent the technology. For more information on licensing and other opportunities, contact Dipak Narula from OTC at dnarula@prf.org and mention track code 2019-YAZA-68590.