Don’t expect unemployment to drop much in the next year or two, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He projects the jobless rate will be well above seven percent through the end of 2012. That could spell bad news for the re-election of President Barak Obama. Bernanke told Congress “a significant amount of time” [...]
Titan Grinding Machines from Gleason are designed to reduce finish grinding times by as much as 50 percent on cylindrical gears up to 1,500 mm in diameter, according to the company. Workpieces can be loaded automatically through use of an optional workpiece changer. Models 1200G and 1500G machines – for workpiece diameters of 1,200mm and [...]
The TRIBOS-RM precision toolholder from SCHUNK has a one-piece, rotationally symmetric design with a precise run-out accuracy of less than 0.003 mm for small tools for micro machining. It is designed for spindle speeds of up to 60,000 rpm in high-speed cutting. Sizes ISO 10 D 1 to 6 mm are available. The balancing grade [...]
Makino introduced the Ram EDM machinery, the EDAF Series. It is designed for manufacturing in uncontrolled thermal environments and long hours of unattended burning. EDAF-series machines are also equipped with a servo system for rapid response to signals from the spark gap monitoring circuits, enabling cycle time reductions of 10 to 20 percent in burns [...]
Water jet manufacturer Jet Edge, Inc., is now offering 5-axis water jet cutting technology with Intelligent Kerf Compensation – IKC. The IKC 5-Axis water jet cutting head is capable of making inclined cuts and controlling kerf. The capabilities include 600º rotation, a maximum angle of ±60º, and dynamic precision from ±0.2 to ±0.5 mm/m, depending [...]
May US manufacturing technology consumption totaled $178.34 million, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association [AMTDA] and The Association For Manufacturing Technology [AMT]. This total, as reported by companies participating in the United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption [USMTC] program, was down 22.9 percent from April but up 58.6 percent from the total of $112.42 [...]
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I read science fiction. Not exclusively, but I do enjoy the techie stories of authors like Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and Robert Heinlein. They blend stories about people and technology with an optimistic outlook about what’s in store for us. The characters that populate their stories are [...]
