eBulletin, January 2006

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In This Issue

1. Commentary
2. Featured Articles
3. Tech Trends
4. Product Spotlight
5. Events

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Makino

— a leading manufacturer of horizontal and vertical machining centers and EDM machines — has announced a new series of online Webinars. Designed for shops of all types and sizes, the seminars are free to anyone who registers. The planned seminars are intended for shops in the automotive, aerospace, medical product and die and mold industries. In addition to metal cutting and die/mold, the seminars will cover new technologies, such as micromachining. Mark Rentschler, marketing manager, says, "Online seminars allow anyone with an Internet connection to attend without losing a day of work." The seminars concentrate on shop efficiency, lean manufacturing, asset utilization, machine tool integration and automation, machine tool technologies, and metal cutting processes. Makino's application engineers, product managers and guest speakers will give presentations. Click here for more info on upcoming seminars and registration information. Commentary American Machinist is launching "American Machinist for American Manufacturing," a series of articles designed to give you the information you need to keep up with the competition, and features on shops that are using new technologies to beat their competitors. [ READ MORE!] Featured Articles

• Keeping Choppers Up & Maneuvering
  Robinson Helicopter Co., a maker of one of the world's top selling civil helicopters, relies on precision grinding, and its aircraft keeps police on top of troublemakers and the traffic and news crews in the air. [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• Winning At One-Of-A-Kind
  Engineer-to-order manufacturers produce one-of-a-kind items that typically are designed to customer specifications, and these manufacturers find that the usual production strategies do not always work for them, so they have to find custom production software and plans. [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• Taking The Pain Out Of P25
  For most shops, steel grade ISO P25 is the most difficult metal to cut, but many shops have learned how to deal with this tough work. [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• Leaning Toward Multitasking
  For years, Kim Parrish used manufacturing cells that had several machine tools operated by one person at the Advanced Machining & Fabrication Inc. shop in Owasso, Okla. However, he discovered that the old rules about lean manufacturing that led to manufacturing cells had to be rewritten when his shop started to use multitasking machine tools.
  [ READ MORE!]
  
  

Tech Trends

• Moore Tool Claims Breakthrough In Ultra-Precision Grinding [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• Mori Seiki To Introduce Turret Shaft Lathe Aimed At The Automotive Market [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• Small Parts Deburring Machine [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• Machine Improves Secondary Deburring Of Precision Parts After Grinding And Honing
  [ READ MORE!]
  
  
• High-Performance Polycrystalline Diamond Cutting Grade And Advanced Spring-Grinding Disc Wheels To Debut At WESTEC 2006 [ READ MORE!]
  
  

Product SpotlightMakino announced its first quarter 2006 online seminar series. The company says it created the series to help shops of all types and sizes to compete in the global marketplace. The seminar series is designed for shops involved in production machining, metal cutting and micromachining, and in the automotive, aerospace, medical product and die and mold industries. Mark Rentschler, marketing manager, says, "Online seminars allow anyone with an Internet connection to attend without losing a day of work." The seminars concentrate on shop efficiency, getting the most out of your machine tools, asset utilization, machine tool integration and automation, machine tool technologies, and metalcutting processes.Makino's application engineers, product managers and guest speakers will give presentations. The events are free of charge to registered attendees. Upcoming seminars and registration information are listed at www.makino.com/events. Events Take a Tour at Unisys Corporation: Plymouth Supply Chain OperationsDuring the IW/AME Best Plants Conference, attendees can choose to tour Unisys Corporation, where they will witness manufacturing excellence firsthand:

• Lean Visual Management Practices
• Kanbans
• Point-of-Use Material Acquisition
• 5S
• Heijunka/production schedule
• Supermarket

And much more! Don't miss this opportunity May 16-18, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, MI. To register or to find out more about other plant tours at the IW/AME Best Plants Conference, go to: iwbestplants.com.