At Emuge’s newly expanded U.S. manufacturing facility, attendees will see U.S. debuts of tapping, milling technologies and live punch tap, circle segment machining demonstrations.
Emuge Corp. will be holding a TECH EXPO on November 7, 2019 from 9:00am - 12:00pm at its, new expanded 26,000ft2 state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that more than doubles the size of the Emuge U.S. headquarters and manufacturing/technology center to more than 50,000ft2. Tours of the new facility, introductions to the latest tapping and milling tool technology, as well as live machining demonstrations, will be given. Manufacturing professionals are welcome and encouraged to attend.
"For manufacturers who are unable to attend EMO this year, our Cutting TECH EXPO is an excellent opportunity to see firsthand the innovative, cutting-edge Emuge technologies that are being unveiled to the world," says Bob Hellinger, president of Emuge Corp. "We are also very excited to welcome manufacturers to our newly expanded manufacturing/ technology center where they can tour the new machining showroom, training room and manufacturing and tool reconditioning space.”
An introduction overview on Emuge's facility expansion and increased manufacturing capabilities will kick-off the event, followed by a presentation on new products and technologies. Exciting innovations on the horizon such as the new Emuge Taptor drill and tap solution, as well as new end mills designed for hybrid/ additive manufacturing platforms, will be highlighted. In addition, new tool holding technologies for tapping and milling will be debuted. Attendees will also see live machining demonstrations, including for the first time in North America, a live Punch Tap application. Other demonstrations will include the latest in circle segment machining and other 5-axis milling applications on Hurco and Hermle machining centers.
A catered lunch will conclude the event. To register, RSVP by October 21 by calling 508.595.3605 or at www.emuge.com/signup/tech-expo.
Breakthrough Device Designation for NUsurface meniscus implant
Active Implants’s FDA Breakthrough Device Designation allows expedited review of first “artificial meniscus.”
Active Implants’ NUsurface meniscus implant has been granted a Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The NUsurface Meniscus Implant is the first artificial meniscus to be marketed in Europe and, if cleared by the FDA, would be the first artificial meniscus in the U.S.
The FDA Breakthrough Devices Program was implemented to expedite the development and review process for medical devices that are novel or offer new technology for patients with life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating conditions. This program is designed to ensure patients and healthcare providers have more timely access to vital devices.
“The Breakthrough Device Designation is a significant step in our mission to fulfill a substantial unmet need in the U.S. orthopedic market,” says Ted Davis, president and CEO of Active Implants. “We believe we will have the data required for our FDA submission next year, after completing enrollment in our clinical trials in 2018. We look forward to working closely with the FDA to expedite the review process for the NUsurface Implant to provide a new treatment option to the hundreds of thousands of patients who continue to experience persistent knee pain following meniscus surgery, but are too young for total knee replacement.”
Professor Jeannette Song studies how firms make inventory decisions.
Duke University
Weekend roundup: 3DP or stock parts? Duke professor has a model for that
EMO Hannover is a wrap; Methods Machine Tools, Sandvik, Hexagon announce new hires, promotions; Big Kaiser moves CAT50 milling adapter production to US.
It’s been a busy September and the month isn’t over yet. Congratulations are in order for new hires, promotions in the manufacturing industry. Mark Wright will now lead Methods Machine Tools as the newly appointed president and CEO. Sandvik Coromant welcomes Annika Langéen to the position of VP of Marketing for the Americas. Maja Foster will take the role of Global Marketing Director for Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence’s Production Software business.
In case you could attend EMO Hannover 2019, GIE Media’s Manufacturing Group had feet on the ground throughout the show. Here’s a quick recap from Robert Schoenberger.
Keep reading, there are more details about the news mentioned and I’ve included a video and about Jeannette Song, an operations professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and the mathematical model she created to help firms balance the costs of storing spare parts and the need to have them instantly available.
Methods Machine Tools Inc., appointed Mark Wright as its president and CEO. Wright will assume all operating functions of Methods Machine Tools Inc. including the Sudbury, Massachusetts headquarters and all seven direct offices throughout the United States as well as its National distribution network.
Wright’s career spans nearly every level of operating responsibilities in a wide variety of industries including software, hardware, machinery, and services. He has led operations, sales, and financial teams. He has worked in Asia and the Far East and has a very global outlook in strategic planning, growth initiatives, and sales channel programs and development. Wright has significant experience in team building and process improvement. His key strengths include collaborating across functional lines, communicating with global executives, working in various other cultures, and contract negotiations.
Sean Holt, head of Sales Area Americas for Sandvik Coromant, welcomes Annika Langéen to the VP of Marketing role for the Americas. Langéenis responsible for the strategic direction of global marketing and brand positioning for the sales area.
Langéen joined Sandvik Coromant in 2014 as regional sales manager South Sweden and was appointed to VP of sales for Nordic countries in 2016. Experienced in various roles within sales and operations, Langéen is a leader who drives improvements, delivers results and develops people. In her new role, she is accountable for the strategic direction of global marketing and brand positioning. Through her proven track record and dynamic management style, she will continue to elevate the brand and improve the customer experience. Langéen holds master’s degrees in Technology Management and Science, Chemical Engineering & Technology from Lund University in Sweden.
Langéen’s home base is at the Schaumburg, Illinois, office, the location of the Sandvik Coromant Center.
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence has appointed Maja Foster as global marketing director of its Production Software business. Joining the company after seven years at machine tool manufacturer Mazak, including the last three as European marketing manager, Foster brings a wealth of metalworking industry experience to her new role, in which she will be setting marketing strategies for all product lines under the Production Software umbrella.
In addition to the marketing responsibilities, Foster will also lead product management, a specialist team whose tasks include gathering market intelligence, performing market analysis and defining future product content and direction.
In order to offer more flexibility to customers, Big Kaiser has moved production of its CAT50 milling adapters to the U.S. The product performance and design will not change, but the move allows for more variation and faster delivery of special lengths for specific applications.
“The market has spoken,” Alan Miller, engineering and product manager, says. “As awareness of Smart Damper has spread, more and more customers have asked for specials for their unique projects. This allows us to do more of that without the delay of coordinating with our partners overseas and additional shipping time.”
With both a patented counterweight and friction damper, the Smart Damper is a dynamic damping system that eliminates vibration for higher productivity. It provides quiet, vibration-free milling with long projection tools, ultimately making it easier to achieve fine surface finishes and higher metal removal rates.
Smart Damper adapters are also available for turning and boring applications.
A paper describing the model, Stock or Print? Impact of 3D Printing on Spare Parts Industry, has been published in the journal Management Science. Song worked with Yue Zhang, who conducted the research while earning her Ph.D. at The Fuqua School of Business and is now an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University.
The graph above includes the 12-month moving average for the durable goods shipments and cutting tool orders. These values are calculated by taking the average of the most recent 12 months and plotting them over time.
USCTI & AMT
US cutting tool YTD is up through July
With a year-to-date total of $1.5 billion, 2019 is up 2.6% when compared with 2018.
July 2019 U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $198.4 million according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report collaboration, was down 0.6% from June's $199.7 million and down 1.3% when compared with the $201.0 million reported for July 2018. With a year-to-date total of $1.5 billion, 2019 is up 2.6% when compared with 2018.
These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals reported by the companies participating in the CTMR program. The totals here represent the majority of the U.S. market for cutting tools.
Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group says, “While orders for production machines are down 12%, cutting tool shipments are still holding up in comparison to 2018 figures. The impending downturn in investment is expected to be short and shallow but it is still likely to yield a couple of tough quarters for cutting tool manufacturers.”
“The Purchasing Managers’ Index dip below 50 in July suggests that the year over year growth in cutting tools is likely to turn negative when August shipment levels are published. Still, some industries demand for cutting tools continues to expand as cautiousness shifted production downstream deeper into the supply chain or into contract machine shops,” said Dave Burns, President of Global Business Advisory Services LLC.
EMO HANNOVER
Automation, connectivity to drive production displayed at EMO
Global machine tool community paving the way for Industry 4.0; SKF, FANUC, Fastems, and Ecoclean show highlights.
“umati is opening up a new chapter in production,” says Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop, Chairman of the VDW (Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenhersteller – German Machine Tool Builders' Association). “The interface enables machine tool manufacturers to fulfill another Industry 4.0 promise: the simple, fast, and secure exchange of data.”
70 companies from 10 countries connected 110 machines and 28 value-added services at EMO Hannover 2019 via the umati standard interface. Creating a connection and providing a uniform language for machines, systems, and software are essential prerequisites for reaping the benefits of digitalization in production.
umati has also already made a strong impression internationally. Three international consortia from major machine tool manufacturing countries have joined the interface: ProdNet from Switzerland, Edgecross from Japan, and NCLink from China. In addition, the machine tool associations from China, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Taiwan as well as the European machine tool association Cecimo are supporting the project.
"Choosing the OPC UA standard as a basis for the development of the interface supports international dissemination. It ensures that umati can be used free of charge worldwide," Prokop says.
90 companies are contributing to the standardization work in the Joint Working Group together with the OPC Foundation. The release of Version 1.0 of the Companion Specification, the next milestone, is planned for the middle of next year.
A few EMO booth highlights
SKF and FANUC demonstrated an edge platform technology solution for the machine tool industry for automated anomaly detection of machine tool health. By using FANUC’s Industrial IoT Platform, FIELD system and SKF’s IMX condition monitoring technology as the basis, end-users will be able to predict spindle health using vibration, temperature, speed and process data. The results are integrated into the end-user’s existing FIELD system dashboards for a straightforward user experience.
Parameters and thresholds per machine are set and adjusted based on real, historical data, not just theoretical standards. Benchmarking real-time bearing performance, across several connected machines in the same factory setting, gives additional insights. Through SKF’s engineering expertise and knowledge of spindles, lubrication systems and sealing solutions, this can lead to improved spindle performance, increased uptime and optimized inventory management.
Davide Giordana, SKF’s director, machine tool industry says, “The value of digitalization and automation within manufacturing lies in the insights it creates for machine owners and operators. By giving end-users real-time insights into the performance of their spindles using bearing trend development and diagnostics, we can help them make better decisions about maintenance. Simply put, this enables higher and more reliable performance.”
Fastems presented
automation equipment, software, and expertise, “engaging with customers and
prospects to explore the optimal way to take a conventional machining cell or
manufacturing operation and automate it,” explained David Suica, president of Fastems LLC, the North
American subsidiary of Finland-based Fastems Oy Ab. “We can discuss everything
from a modular system incorporating a robot to a comprehensive and complex FMS
solution, and all the various iterations in between that spectrum. Automation
solutions require a customized approach and a collaborative effort with our
customers. While we provide equipment such as pallet stackers, robots,
load/unload stations, and sophisticated software, the design and configuration
of all the pieces require experience and proven success. That’s what Fastems
brings to each and every customer’s particular automation needs.”
The
company also highlighted its most recent introductions and services. For its
Robotized Finishing Cells (RFC), Fastems launched
new simulation services and a new version of its FastSimu software. The
simulation services are comprised of packages pertaining to activities before
and after an RFC acquisition.
The
new version of FastSimu is an off-line software tool for the RFC that
graphically simulates various finishing operations such as deburring and
milling. Programmers can view realistic simulations of the process and conduct
virtual testing of new tools and optimize the operations as necessary to avoid
collisions.
The
Fastems RoboCell ONE sets new standards in relation to extremely adaptable and
flexible machining, particularly heavy workpieces within batches of different
sizes. The easy-to-configure robot cell is primarily designed for handling
heavy workpieces weighing up to 176 lb (80kg) and for automating up to two
machine tools of the same type – either lathes or milling machines. The
solution comes into its own at the point where existing automation systems
reach their limits solely due to the maximum weight of the workpiece. The
RoboCell ONE has been specifically developed for the flexible production of
different batch sizes including a wide variety of components. A special feature
of the robot cell is an optional, automated gripper change system for the
flexible handling of workpieces and the simple implementation of new components
– without interrupting production operations. The robot can accordingly be
fitted with single, double, or special grippers. Up to 6 different grippers may
be used for handling workpieces in specific production operations. A single
robot can be operated in one linear axis is able to supply 2 machines with
workpieces in a flexible manner.
The
new MMS Version 7 combines three previously separate manufacturing facets in a
single, powerful software solution that links all relevant processes – part
handling, pallet handling, and workcell operations. The manufacturing processes
in the individual areas can be planned, forecasted, controlled, and monitored
separately or in combination as required. This allows the full transparency of
manufacturing operations by providing a detailed overview of the entire
production process. MMS users will therefore not only find it easier to plan
the production and the resources required for it as a package, but also to
control it more effectively and adapt flexibly to future orders.
Shown
at EMO, Ecolean’s EcoCvelox is a
highly flexible, modular solution for cost-efficient high-pressure waterjet
deburring and cleaning in a single procedure. The process-dependent
configurable and expandable machine with integrated linear transport system
enables processing of parts with dimensions up to 200mm x 200mm x 200mm cycle
times of only 15 seconds per palette in the so-called one-piece flow. An
integrated CAD / CAM interface allows for quick and easy programming of the
high-pressure deburring process – either with a single spindle or a
high-pressure turret with up to five tools. In combination with an innovative
system for parts handling, it ensures that process operations for new
workpieces can be implemented in the shortest possible time. Component cleaning
and drying can be carried out by means of injection flood washing, spraying,
controlled rinsing and ultrasound, as well as high-speed blowing and vacuum
drying. The system can be loaded automatically with a robot or portal system as
well as manually.