Content tagged with "process"
Results: 52
Article
November 8, 2005
Trailblazing with waterjet
With waterjet cutting, Johnson Enterprises has been able to attract new customers outside of its core sawmill industry customer base. A long way from its modest machine shop beginnings 20 years ago, Johnson Enterprises Inc. in Val D'Amour, New Brunswick, Canada, has become a leading... Read more...
Article
July 13, 2004
Welding Miniature Devices
Welders have been joining miniature electromechanical devices for industrial and medical applications for more than 30 years. However, it's a subject that hasn't been featured much in papers and technical publications. The history of joining miniature devices goes back to the turn of the... Read more...
Article
October 23, 2003
Tube Hydroforming Design Flexibility—Part IV
Material selection is a very important aspect of design flexibility when striving to fulfill part functionality requirements. Choosing the correct material is fundamental to making the part effectively and efficiently.
The way a material is formed and the conditions it needs to withstand for... Read more...
Article
October 9, 2003
Eliminating final trim shearing of hydroformed tube
An alternative to trimming a tube to establish tube length is to form the tube in the preform operation to a geometry that is close to the final product and to seal it during hydroforming with caps that match its formed shape. Generally, a round tube is bent on a rotary draw bender... Read more...
Article
September 25, 2003
Making the most of hydroforming
Figure 1 To help ensure successful part development, it is necessary to establish a multitask project team. Designers, hydroforming technologists, and material specialists should be involved in the component stage. To achieve possible economic benefits from this process, it is... Read more...
Article
September 25, 2003
Getting a handle on work-related hand injuries
Of the 3.6 million work-related injuries treated annually in emergency rooms across the U.S., hands and fingers are the most commonly treated body parts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90 percent of all acute injuries in the workplace are... Read more...
Article
September 25, 2003
Supporting the defense
United Defense's motto is Changing the future of defense™. One of its latest missions toward this goal was to introduce a direct diode laser into its Aberdeen, S.D., manufacturing facility. The company designs, develops, and produces combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile... Read more...
Article
August 28, 2003
Making plasma cutting easier
For many people, the world of plasma cutting is a complex and daunting place, with a cryptic set of rules that can be mastered only by highly trained technicians after weeks of training. For every change of material or thickness being cut, a long process ensues of resetting gas mixtures,... Read more...
Article
August 28, 2003
Article
August 28, 2003
Minimizing wall thickness variation in seamless tubing
Reducing the amount of variation, or achieving more wall thickness consistency, can be the difference between meeting a customer's requirements or not. It also helps to reduce or even may eliminate the customer's need for subsequent processes such as machining. Seamless tube typically is... Read more...
Article
August 28, 2003
Considering thermal processes for dissimilar metals
This joint has dual characteristics—a brazed joint on the steel side and a welded joint on the aluminum side. A reliable method of joining the two most commonly used metals, steel and aluminum, would make it possible to make these joints in several applications. On one hand,... Read more...
Article
August 14, 2003
Selecting equipment for a robotic welding workcell
Keep the end result—the product that the robotic workcell is turning out —as your primary focus when you select automation equipment. The entire workcell, no one part of it, is crucial for successful integration and an expedient return on investment. A robot is repeatable and makes... Read more...
Article
July 24, 2003
Tier 1 supplier builds four-stage competitive strategy
F & P Manufacturing Inc., a Tier 1 automotive supplier, is no stranger to competitive and financial pressures. Unrelenting competitive pressures come from the many other Tier 1 suppliers looking for opportunities to increase their slice of the automotive pie. Financial pressures come from... Read more...
Article
July 10, 2003
Article
June 12, 2003
Inline process auditing
Sound familiar? What are the options? Today's Audit Today the most widely accepted practice for checking part or process quality is random or, at best, controlled sampling. With these types of sampling, you hope those four parts you checked from 70 are enough to catch a major disaster.... Read more...
Article
May 29, 2003
Getting it Straight
Before coiled material can pass through a die to produce an acceptable part, it must be straightened. Coil straightening is accomplished by bending a strip of material around sets of rollers that alternately stretch and compress the upper and lower surfaces so that the material's yield... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2003
Improving the bottom line in automotive applications
Total Cost of Quality
Most people think only about the costs associated with internal failures, such as rejects or scrap, and external failures, such as shipped product that needs to be repaired, scrapped, or returned. Other costs associated with quality that can be incurred include appraisal... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2003
Cutting exotic alloys
But sometimes this common process can be puzzling, especially when the fabricator is cutting titanium or other alloys. Tubing may be cut successfully in one production application, but the next time the result is galling and extremely short blade life. If an operator understands why this... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2003
Hydraulic forming takes a front seat
While designers took these limitations into account and designed the product to be forgiving at the ends of the channels, several factors over the past decade have caused the company to use roll forming less and less. The Move Toward New Technology The first change to influence the... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2003
Truckin' along through a stamping plant
The earlier cab models were built in a facility that was converted in 1921 to produce the model S truck line, a truck with a 1.5-ton load capacity and a top speed of 30 MPH. The company determined that it could not competitively launch a new line of vehicles without building a new... Read more...
Article
October 25, 2002
Considering the benefits of pulse spray transfer GMAW
Object Pulse spray gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is a versatile welding process. Sometimes welding suppliers and welding managers don't want to try it, because they don't want to change the process they're using, train users, adjust welding processes, or spend money on new equipment.While any... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2002
Using the tandem welding process to your advantage
The idea of welding with two wires is not a new one. Two-wire welding technology has been around for decades. However, only in the past few years has welding power source technology become advanced enough to provide good results with the GMAW process. When using a tandem welding... Read more...
Article
March 28, 2002
Taking a look at performance appraisals
As our work lives continue to become more complex, many managers are looking for assistance in the ongoing effort to achieve results—often with fewer resources. In the middle of all this, it may be helpful to develop a simpler strategy when attempting to communicate your expectations to... Read more...
Article
March 13, 2002
Article
November 15, 2001
Article
October 11, 2001
Interaction of chemicals used in forming and fabricating
Lubricants, coolants, corrosion inhibitors, cleaners, coatings, fluxes, and other chemicals all are used-and thus intermixed-in metal manufacturing, forming, fabrication, welding, and finishing. As a result, as manufacturers become more conscious of quality, safety, productivity, and disposal... Read more...
Article
October 11, 2001
Article
September 17, 2001
Making seamless tubing with a floating mandrel mill
Every six seconds, a single, 32-foot length of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) production tubing used in the exploration and production of oil and/or gas is produced. More than 20,000 miles of tubular product a year can be produced using the floating mandrel mill seamless tubular production... Read more...
Article
September 4, 2001
Changing the way they do business
Dealing with work loads, delivery schedules, and many other responsibilities doesn't leave managers with much time to consider factors that justify equipment improvements. Often this means ideas for improvements get shelved. However, fabricators who want to improve production and... Read more...
Article
July 26, 2001
Article
July 26, 2001
How one company organized its powder coating process
In today's metal finishing industry, quality and efficiency are of equal value to the customer. Quality is important for obvious reasons; efficiency is desired because it keeps prices down and results in short lead-times for customers. The finishing process typically is the final... Read more...
Article
July 12, 2001
How to Kill a Robotic Project in Five Easy Steps
The same few roadblocks always seem to conspire to either cause a robot project to fail or at least greatly limit its success. Too many manufacturers do things that virtually guarantee that their robots will have serious problems performing as expected. Many of these hindrances have... Read more...
Article
July 12, 2001
Laser welding of stainless pressure tubes
The vast majority of welded stainless steel pressure tubing is produced with the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process. This process often is referred to as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding. However, with the recent advent of reliable, high-power laser power sources, the laser beam... Read more...
Article
June 15, 2001
Gas-shielded cored wires find their niche
Object Gas-shielded flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) and metal-cored arc welding (MCAW) are growing in popularity for many applications. To determine if these wires should be used, shop managers should understand how formulations of cored wires do or do not fit their quality requirements for... Read more...
Article
June 15, 2001
Article
June 15, 2001
Article
June 13, 2001
Article
June 12, 2001
Leaping the hurdles to press brake automation
Figure 1: This figure shows the ratio of value-added versus nonvalue-added time for a 50-part bending job. In this example, 42 percent of the time needed to bend the parts was spent on setup. Understanding the obstacles to automating press brakes requires an analysis of the bending... Read more...
Article
June 6, 2001
Protecting surface-sensitive materials in coil processing
In today's world of metal fabricating, reducing the number of steps in the production process is an ever-increasing trend. Fabricators are becoming more efficient by: Feeding production lines with materials that have been slit to the proper finished dimension. Feeding production lines with... Read more...
Article
May 30, 2001
Article
May 30, 2001
Skelp edge preparation for manufacturing ERW pipe
Achieving a quality weld requires starting with good edges. In manufacturing electric-resistance- welded (ERW) pipe and tube, this is critical. Perfect edges are almost impossible to obtain consistently by rotary side trimming single-width coils or side trimming and slitting master... Read more...
Article
May 15, 2001
Mill coolant system design
Coolants are used to wash away oils, oxides, slivers, and dirt generated during the forming, welding, and sizing of tubes and roll-formed profiles. These coolants are a mixture of water and refined chemicals that help cleanse the process, protect part finish, extend tool life, and inhibit rust... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2001
Predicting the outcomes of laser thermal forming
Applying a laser or any other high-density heat source to the surface of a metal sheet for a short time will distort the metal. If this distortion could be predicted, the laser could be directed so that the sheet metal would form the desired shape. This idea opens up many possibilities,... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2001
What you don't know about spot welding
To most manufacturers, spot welding is the most economical way to join two pieces of sheet metal. While joining sheet metal is the most common use for the process, resistance welding (RW) equipment actually can be used for a large variety of joining and heat-treating projects, some of which are... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2001
Examining electric resistance weld nuggets in tube and pipe
An in-depth examination of electric resistance welding (ERW) weld nuggets as a quality control step in the manufacturing of high-strength tube and pipe used for pressure applications has been a proprietary procedure for some manufacturers for several years. Types of pressure-application tube... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2001
Troubleshooting your stamping operation
A manufacturing process can be defined as altering the configuration or shape of raw material and/or previously manufactured components with a combination of equipment, tools, and operators to create a new product. Over time, any manufacturing process becomes vulnerable to alteration through... Read more...
Article
March 26, 2001
Producing quality ASTM A249 and ASME SA 249 pressure tubes
Object Producing quality ASTM A249 and ASME SA249 pressure tubes takes more than just applying a stencil to the product. It requires a manufacturing process and a quality system that not only provide an excellent weld, but also condition the weld through proper cold working (forging) and... Read more...
Article
March 13, 2001
Just what does Covisint mean, anyway?
For the last few years, the business world has been enthralled by the Internet. The stock markets are awash in all kinds of high-tech ventures pushing into every last nook and cranny of the economy. So why is there such an interest in Covisint, the automotive industry's... Read more...
Article
March 13, 2001
Article
March 5, 2001
Article
March 5, 2001
The basic elements of tubular hydroforming
Tube hydroforming has been well-known since the 1950s. However, with recent advancements in computer controls and high-pressure hydraulic systems, the process has become a viable method for mass production, especially with the use of internal pressures of up to 6,000 pounds per square inch... Read more...
Article
February 19, 2001
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