In brief

United Grinding North America’s Tool Division promoted several people. Markus Stolmar will transition from his current role as vice president to executive vice president; Simon Manns will move into Stolmar’s leadership position after years as the division’s technical sales manager; and Sales Support Engineer Richard Navratil moves into the position of technical sales manager. Outside the Tool Division, Phil Wiss has been promoted from regional sales manager III to regional sales manager IV; Jason Barber was promoted to director of information services from information services manager. 

Forest City Gear has promoted Joe Konetski to process engineer on its Cut Teeth Only operations team, a resource dedicated to completion of gears made from a customer’s gear blank.

ADM Tronics Unlimited Inc. is expanding research and development (R&D) and manufacturing areas in its Northvale, New Jersey, facility to accommodate increases in customer contract manufacturing orders and increased R&D activities for its suite of proprietary medical technologies.

Mazak’s Discover 2019 education and technology event

Discover 2019 takes place at Mazak Corp.’s North American manufacturing headquarters in Florence, Kentucky, Nov. 5-7 and 12-13. Attendees will learn about technologies that increase efficiency and productivity, such as hybrid multi-tasking machines with additive manufacturing (AM), friction stir welding (FSW), hot wire deposition (HWD), and auto gear (AG) packages. Mixed reality (MR) remote service support and a machine spindle health monitoring system will also be on display, highlighting artificial intelligence (AI) within Mazak’s Smooth Technology manufacturing platform.

Thirty machining systems will be either completely new to the industry or making their North American debuts – several of which are Kentucky-produced models. There will also be several learning seminars with Mazak collaborative partners, access to Mazak application experts, a student day for recruitment, and regularly scheduled tours of the Mazak iSMART Factory.

“Mazak customers have come to rely on the Discover events for keeping up with the latest manufacturing advancements,” says Dan Janka, president of Mazak Corp. He adds that the Discover What We Can Do Together theme “coincides with Mazak’s 100 Year Anniversary.” 

My daughter suggested we take a mother-daughter trip to Florida before she headed back to college. I was instantly on board, even knowing Florida in August was going to be sweltering, a hurricane could happen, and news reports of necrotizing fasciitis were (and still are) making headlines.

I was going to get away from work, thinking only of sand, sun, and Mickey Mouse. Well think again.

We flew on an Airbus A320 during Frontier Airline’s Green Week, a celebration of its fuel-efficient fleet that saved 102 million gallons of fuel in 2018. The A320s are nearly 50% quieter than previous generation aircraft, thanks to composite and aluminum alloy use, while wing sharklets have annually saved 700 tons of CO₂ per aircraft since 2013. Smaller, redesigned tray tables; ultra-lightweight seats; and removal of in-flight Wi-Fi and entertainment delivers additional efficiencies.

Next up was a trip to Disney, where automation technology is everywhere. Disney resorts and theme parks operate 24/7, 365 days a year and boast 99.9% uptime. While it’s not a lights-out manufacturing facility, Disney’s use of automation ensures guests and cast members are safe and their experiences seamless. One example is Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain that saves energy by using Siemens Sinamics G120 safety regenerative drives that take energy used by the roller coaster and put it back into the electrical infrastructure. (In late 2010, Siemens and Disney ended a 12-year marketing alliance in the technology sector for entertainment.)

Before the end of vacation we included a stop at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, an animal hospital specializing in the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of sick or injured marine animals. While you can watch veterinary technicians tending to their latest rescue animal in the Surgical Suite (a modern exam/operating room), we wanted to see “Dolphin Tale” and “Dolphin Tale 2” star Winter, the bottlenose dolphin rescued in Dec. 2005. She lost her tail fluke and part of her peduncle so she’s fitted with a flexible thermoplastic prosthetic tail. As local prosthetists worked to ensure it fit without creating hot spots, a new gel material was developed, WintersGel Prosthetic Liners. It keeps Winters’ prosthetic tail suctioned to her body – similar to how a surgical glove grips a hand – and is now used as liners for human prosthetics.

Medical procedures, motion drives, and advanced materials… so much for getting out of the office.

Elizabeth Engler Modic, Editor
emodic@gie.net

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