Hear manufacturing insights from our panel of experts representing Makino, Mitsui Seiki, and Okuma.
Register today for next week’s roundtable, Smart manufacturing with advanced machine tools, and learn from our panel of experts how smart manufacturing is delivered by combining manufacturing, information, and communication technologies ? connecting the entire manufacturing system for efficiency and competitiveness.
Taking place Wednesday, May 18 from 12PM – 1PM ET, this roundtable will be your opportunity to find out the latest how Industry 4.0, robotics, ultraprecision tools and more advancements are being incorporated by Makino, Okuma, and Mitsui Seiki.
Some key topics discussed will be:
Richard Aboulafia examines the current aerospace market and what to expect in the second half of 2022.
Richard Aboulafia, FRAeS, Managing Director, AeroDynamic Advisory, examines the current aerospace market and what to expect in the second half of 2022.
When? May 19, 2022 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Richard Aboulafia manages consulting projects in the commercial and military aircraft field and analyzes broader defense and aerospace trends. He has advised numerous aerospace companies, including most prime and many second- and third-tier contractors in the US, Europe, and Asia. He also advises numerous financial institutions on aerospace market conditions.
Click here to learn more and register today. Can’t participate during the live event? No problem. Each registered attendee will also receive a link to the recording. This content will be sent within 5 business days after the event.
Join us May 26 at 12PM ET to hear insights from Open Mind Technologies USA and Heidenhain.
When you register for our May Manufacturing Lunch + Learn event you will gain new insight about today’s manufacturing technology.
The first session is presented by Open Mind Technologies USA featuring Account Manager Kevin Lewis and Application Engineer Uday Honnalagere. The two will be discussing intelligent “best fit” CAM process for alignment and machining of 3D printed stock. Additive/3D printed material used in manufacturing applications are witnessing high growth worldwide in a broad range of industries. Historically, for components that need finish machining after AM, the alignment on the machine tool requires high expertise, expense in setup time, and can have inconsistent results. This is due to the challenge in alignment of the NC program to the real-world conditions presented by the clamping position of the irregular material on the machine tool. Intelligent part alignment integrated in the CAM system offers a solution to this problem by efficiently adapting the virtual (NC program) to the real world (location of the stock on the machine). A “best fit” CAM process offers a quick, predictable, and reliable path to overcome this challenge in a way that eliminates the requirement for specialist knowledge, reduces setup time and eliminates waste.
The second presentation is from John Parker, MT business development and product manager at Heidenhain. Parker will be discussing new CNCS manufactured in the U.S. – MILLPWR an TURNPWR.
MILLPWR a powerful yet easy to operate CNC retrofit systems for knee mills and bed mills. Faster set-ups, shorter run times and a major boost in productivity are just one "powerful easy" retrofit away. Our new MILLPWRG2 control and retrofit kits can turn just about any knee mill into a powerhouse money-maker.
TURNPWR is a workshop-oriented turning control that enables the user to program conventional machining operations right at the machine. It is designed for turning machine tools with up to two axes. TURNPWR was developed to satisfy the wants and needs of lathe machinists where manual and automated operation are both useful and needed. TURNPWR promises to enable the user to maximize throughput by significantly reducing setup time, scrap, and other non-productive operations.
Register today so you aren’t left behind the competition.
The iAero Thrust ETC is the first and only testing facility in South Florida for the CFM56 engine line.
iAero Thrust, a leading engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and engine testing provider focused on the CFM56 engine line and one of the companies within the iAero Group aviation investment platform, has developed, built, and opened a new state-of-the-art engine test cell facility in Medley, FL. The ETC provides comprehensive engine testing and hospital visit services for the CFM56 engine line. It will test all engines serviced through the iAero Thrust MRO in Miami, FL as well as engines from third party MROs, lessors, and other engine operators. The ETC was designed and commissioned by Safran Test Cells and correlated by GE Aviation. The ETC is now FAA certified to perform acceptance testing on the CFM56-3 engines in addition to the CFM56-7B engine. "We are incredibly proud of our team for their resilience and hard work over the past two years to build, calibrate, and certify this new facility, and we are very excited to offer this new capability to our customers." said Tommy Mitchell, President iAero Thrust. "Our state-of-the-art Engine Test Center is just another way we are scaling our integrated full-service engine MRO to serve the growing maintenance and testing demand for the all-time best-selling commercial aircraft engine in the world."
Helen Blomqvist, president of Sandvik Coromant, discusses working with new materials for light-weighting components, how digital machining can improve productivity and meet manufacturers’ sustainability goals, and developing a more diverse workforce.
Aerospace Manufacturing & Design (AM&D): What does Sandvik Coromant have new for composites and light-weighting in aerospace? Helen Blomqvist, President of Sandvik Coromant: We have a good pipeline of new products coming for composites and lightweight materials and some exciting news planned for 2022 and 2023. We have a strong aerospace focus and more lightweight-material focus going forward. We’re looking to have products with more complex PCD [polycrystalline diamond] geometries, for example. We’re also upgrading a few of our solid round tool products.
AM&D: How does digital machining improve productivity and contribute to sustainability goals? Blomqvist: We want to be as close to the customers and as early in the decision chain as possible. The digital thread is now where we have the manufacturing value chain. Our digital portfolio, CoroPlus®, offers several solutions to support our customers in design and planning, starting with the CAM programming, optimizing the tool path even before starting to machine. It’s important from a sustainability perspective because the shorter the machining time and the more optimized the toolpath, the less energy consumption and the less waste you’ll have.
Our recently acquired company, CGTech, offers software we use in our own production facilities to make sure that we have optimized code. Our CoroPlus® Tool Guide gives recommendations on how to operate and run the tool in the best possible way.
We also have CoroPlus® Machining Insights where a customer doesn’t have to be on the production floor to know how the machine is running. Is the green light on or not? Are there any problems in the machine? You receive these insights from this software.
We also recently acquired ICAM, a post processing company for CAM code. They’ll be part of CGTech, so VERICUT and ICAM offerings will be combined in a strong product for our customers.
We want to develop our software and methods very close to the tool, because that’s our core, that’s where we excel. We sell the tool together with a method, so the toolpath, the CAM programming must be perfect. Everything is connected to sustainability.
AM&D: With 3D printing and additive manufacturing emerging for metal production parts, what are the opportunities for adapting cutting tools to these materials and processes? Blomqvist: With 3D printing and additive manufacturing growing, we’ll have more near-net shapes to machine. Machining will still be there, but it’ll be more semi-finishing and finishing applications.
As part of Sandvik Group, we have an additive focus and powder manufacturing, so it’s very much part of the Sandvik strategy and an area we work with in R&D. And we’re monitoring what kind of components are being produced that are relevant for us. There are a lot of exciting opportunities ahead to machine these applications and components.
AM&D: It’s difficult enough to attract young people to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and machining careers, so what can be done additionally to bring in more young women and a more diverse workforce? Blomqvist: We know that a diverse workforce has much better performance, so we’d like to have as much diversity as possible. I think we’ve been quite successful at Sandvik Coromant bringing in young women and promoting women to managerial positions. [Currently, women make up 18% of Sandvik Coromant’s workforce and 30% of its next-generation managers.] I think we all need to act as role models, and to show that this industry is for everyone. It’s actually fun. I know my daughters, for example, want to create and innovate, and they want to have fun at work. I think manufacturing is a perfect environment if you want to have fun. This is something we need to share. I try to be a role model and talk to students I meet in visits to our production facilities and virtual tours to showcase this environment and what someone, maybe an engineer, is doing at Sandvik Coromant today.
And we have the Sandvik Coromant Academy, where we have free training where you can learn more about metal cutting. We work actively with schools. In Sweden, we fund two schools and make sure their students can come to us for training. In the U.S. [Mebane, North Carolina], we have an apprentice program. This is also a way for us to attract talent and to continue to attract women to the industry.
AM&D: What’s emerging as the biggest challenge to aerospace manufacturing and how is Sandvik Coromant responding? Blomqvist: We have the major trends of sustainability, digitalization, but also the knowledge or skills gap that we need to close. Rather than challenges, from an opportunity perspective, we’ve really developed as a company to promote our total offer. It’s not only about the products for turning, milling, drilling, and tooling systems, but it’s also about giving advice on specific components, such as blisks, disks, and blades, and to show we have good solutions for those specific components. We can also offer support services, looking at lean manufacturing, CAM programming, and so on, because aerospace components are expensive to produce. It’s also the total cost of the component that must be optimized. Here we have a role to play, to offer the products, digital solutions, services, and knowledge, and to package them all. I think that’s a great opportunity for us, and something that we’re already doing as a company.
Helen Blomqvist, a Swedish national, has more than 18 years of experience working for Sandvik Coromant and has gone from R&D engineer in materials characterization to president. During her career, she had several managerial positions within R&D and sales, leading Sales Area North Europe. She has a proven track record of being a great leader and has earned the prestigious award of Sandvik Coromant Leader of the Year 2018. Helen’s motivation is highlighted by her focus on creating winning teams to achieve great results. She holds a Ph.D. in structural chemistry from Stockholm University and holds several patents. Her Ph.D. thesis title was “Magnesium ions stabilizing solid-state transition metal hydrides.”