Advanced Manufacturing Now

As water jet technology has improved so, too, has the precision of these abrasive cutting machines. Along the way the applications for water jet cutting has expanded as well. At Eastec, Michael Ruppenthal, Omax vice president for North American sales, sat down with Manufacturing Engineering's James D. Sawyer to detail how the MicroMax, an ultra-precise fully enclosed water jet, has carved out a place for itself in the electronics industry, where it is used to make molds, circuit boards and other components.

Hermle Machine Co., a manufacturer of high-end machine tools, annually employs 100 to 120 apprentices in its German operations. The apprentices make up about 13% of that workforce. Manuel Merkt, executive vice president of operations at Hermle's US operations (Franklin, WI), is working with the German American Chamber of Commerce to establish a similar program in Wisconsin which would provide graduates with the same skills and certifications that the program in Germany offers. Merkt, himself a product of the apprenticeship program, explains to Manufacturing Engineering's James D. Sawyer how the effort is proceeding.

Charlie Slagle, president and CEO of Hoffmann Group USA, talks with Editor in Chief Alan Rooks about the history of The Hoffmann Group as a tooling manufacturer and distributor in Europe, and its 2016 entry into the US market. The company markets its Garant and Holex brand portfolios and distributes a wide variety of products from other tooling manufacturers.

In an interview with Jim Sawyer of Manufacturing Engineering, Jan Andersson, global director of Greenleaf Corp.'s Tech Team and marketing explores the four pillars of metalcutting are and why it is crucial to pay attention to each of them to achieve the best results.

Additive manufacturing has come a long way from being a prototyping technology. In many instances, it is now a viable method of production. Not every manufacturer, however, has the expertise and resources to put 3D manufacturing into practice. In this sponsored podcast, Manufacturing Engineering's Jim Sawyer interviews Shane Fox, founder and CEO of Link3D, to learn how the company's proprietary technology provides engineers with a secure, fully automated request-for-quote process to identify vetted additive manufacturing partners from around the world.

A manufacturing concern can get the greatest return on its investment by optimizing its overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE. In this sponsored podcast, Memex CEO David McPhail details the relationship between OEE and the Industrial Internet of Things. Data, he explains, is what drives this relationship. Data-driven manufacturing consists of keeping track of everything that happens on the shop floor, and software, including Memex's Merlin Tempus solution, helps monitor and manage that data.

Ken Baeszler, a market segment manager and product manager at GF Machining Solutions, sat down at SME's Eastec show with Manufacturing Engineering's Jim Sawyer to discuss GFMS's new offerings of machine tools. Baeszler begins by describing the new Mill P 900, a high-precision machine tool for the mold and die industry.

SME this year gave the Dick Aubin Distinguished Paper Award to the authors of "Liquid Metal 3D Printing: A Magnetohydrodynamic Approach." One of the authors, Swati Chandran Thirumangalath, explains what the paper says about the work she did as a design and simulation engineer at Vader Systems in Buffalo, NY.

SME's Additive Manufacturing Community this year gave Dieter Schwarze, PhD, of SLM Solutions GmbH the 2017 Industry Achievement Award. The award recognizes of his significant and continued impact on additive manufacturing through development of processes and technology applied in industry. In 1989, Schwarze began his R&D work on additive manufacturing and its commercialization. He is one of the primary inventors of selective laser melting. Schwarze holds several patents and previously studied physics at the University of Paderborn. He sat down with Smart Manufacturing magazine Editor in Chief Brett Brune at RAPID + TCT to review the technology's progress and give his opinion about what is to come. "Today we are only in markets that use metal. But that does not mean it should stay like this in the future."

Brian Bittner, national sales manager of Beamer Laser Systems, talks to Senior Editor Bill Koenig at the Eastec Show, held in May in West Springfield, MA. Bittner describes the company's operations.