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Three Common Questions Concerning Laser Welding in Sheet Metal Fabrication
Many sheet metal fabrication shops still hesitate to invest in laser welding. They are missing out on the numerous competitive advantages and opportunities that it offers over conventional welding processes. Here are some insights that they need to know.
What’s the True Cost of Clean Air?
You know the price of your ventilation or dust collection equipment, but do you really understand all of the ongoing expenses involved in maintaining indoor air quality for your shop? Time for a sanity check.
NextGen Spaceframe Combines Lightweight Construction and Flexibility
A functionally integrated, bionically optimized vehicle structure offers new potential for lightweight construction and greater manufacturing flexibility of automobiles.
New Wage and Hour Regulations Will Make It Harder to Claim Overtime Exemption
Your shop only has a few months to prepare for the new government regulations that require employers to increase salary levels or pay overtime to millions of employees who are presently ineligible for such premium payments. Here are some insights into the challenges they may present that should be addressed without delay.
Managing the Perfect Storm
As automation and IT enter more prominently into plant operations, the education that the manufacturing segment of our society provides for our current and future workforce will impact the viability of industry in America for generations to come.
Are You Ready for the Industrial Internet of Things?
Is your shop still stuck reacting to customer problems that have already happened? The power of smart manufacturing can make you more competitive by unleashing actionable CMM measurement data that alerts you and your customer at the same time that something has happened – so that you can respond proactively.
Rethinking Automation: The Birth of Circular Manufacturing
Aluminum car body parts made from old cars. Laptops made of plastic from old laptops. Chemicals leased out, recovered, and leased again. Don’t miss the new business opportunities for manufacturers that lie hidden inside the circular economics being created by connecting automation with the technology of the Internet of Things.
Getting Mobility & Smart Connected Devices Right on the Factory Floor
What is the appropriate size of a mobile device to use on the factory floor?
Weathering Steel: Taking the Guesswork Out of Filler Metal Selection
Weathering steel offers excellent resistance to atmospheric corrosion caused by rain, snow or humidity. During the welding process, the filler metal type and the manner in which it is applied determines whether the resulting weld will match corrosion resistance or have the same reddish appearance, more commonly known as color match.
Cutting Corners: The Idea Behind Power Ramping
Although power ramping has proven to be highly beneficial, it is often underutilized on the shop floor because fabricators either do not understand its benefits or they just don’t know how to use it. By simply applying the given values and principles presented here, they will see a visible improvement in corner and radii cut quality.
Automating the Factory Environment
Imagine whole-plant environmental automation data feeding smart control systems in your shop that respond in real time and learn over time to anticipate and respond to the needs of the humans in your shop – perhaps even better than the humans can. It’s time to start thinking about your environmental systems in a whole new way – or maybe stop thinking about them at all. After all, they’ll soon be able to take care of themselves.
A More Productive Alternative to Helical Interpolation for High Volume Holemaking
The limitations of using milling tools to prepare holes for finishing become apparent as hole depth and volume increase. Enter the relatively simple and affordable twin cutter, which can solve this and virtually any other holemaking problem.
