One way to avoid dimpling and deburring while making holes in tube and pipe is use annular cutters. Because annular cutters are hollow, there is no dead-zone resistance to overcome. Knowing how to use an annular cutter and what to watch for can help avoid problems and extend tool wear.

China has been in the news extensively during the past couple of years, and developments in 2005 have intensified the focus on the world's most populous country. Chinese companies Hair and China National Offshore Oil Co. put in bids on U.S. companies (Maytag and Unocal); meanwhile, the People's Bank of China unhooked the yuan from the dollar in favor of linking the yuan to a basket of foreign currencies. This is the perfect time to embark on a tour to get a better understanding of the country's manfacturing capabilities, so FMA, TPA, and Thermatool Corp. teamued up to organize the tube- and pipe-oriented tour of the country.

Evidence that stainless steel has potential as a material for automotive components—for its high strength-to-weight ratio for overall weight reduction, good dent performance, corrosion resistance, and formability—was presented by ISSF members at the SAE International™ 2004 SAE World Congress, in Detroit.