Content tagged with "program"
Results: 38
Article
January 11, 2005
Metal formers: Keep an eye on monitoring program
The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a call for comments in August on whether to extend the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) system and how to improve the program if it lives on. The Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) of Independence, Ohio, which represents hundreds of metal... Read more...
Article
February 26, 2004
Do you see the light?
To be more specific, fabricators may be missing out on an opportunity to pocket some savings if they haven't taken a close look at how their operations are consuming energy. And with the economic environment as tough as it is, many fabricators probably are concentrating more on the... Read more...
Article
January 29, 2004
Managing environmental risk in tube, pipe production
Editor's Note: This article is adapted from a presentation made at the TPJ Symposium, March 16-18, 2003, Scottsdale, Ariz. The U.S. Congress and the states have created a complex scheme of environmental rules and regulations with which tube and pipe producers must comply.... Read more...
Article
January 13, 2004
The future of structural welding
Like my history of welding article , this article is my small insight into the future of structural welding. Like I said before, if you are a history or English professor—and I'll add math professor to this group after my last miscalculation, pointed out by Ted Neff... Read more...
Article
November 20, 2003
Workers' compensation—Managing the process
Editor's note: Portions of this article were published previously in an issue of FMA/TPA "Member Connections." State workers' compensation laws were enacted to ensure that covered employees who are injured on the job are provided with monetary benefits to cover medical expenses and to... Read more...
Article
November 6, 2003
Article
October 23, 2003
Plotting for success
Another way of looking at this is that we get so tied up in the day-to-day grind that we forget or ignore the deteriorating conditions in the forming mill and tooling until a customer complains about weld splits. We lose our edge, figuratively and literally, and it shows up in nonparallel edges... Read more...
Article
October 23, 2003
Take control of safety
Often invisible to the human eyes, airborne contaminants can have serious consequences for your health. Be familiar with the potential hazards and the effects they can have on your respiratory system. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard 1910.134... Read more...
Article
October 23, 2003
Programming multiple robots
Figure 1 Two robots can weld on the left side of a large vehicle frame, while two other robots weld on the right side, with all robot motion synchronized by a multiple-robot control. Multiple Robots, Single Process Multiple-robot control can increase productivity in workcells in... Read more...
Article
September 25, 2003
Budget cuts hit welding hard
Bill Garner is outraged when he hears that Connecticut, where he teaches welding, would rather import welders than keep adult vocational education programs that train the state's own residents. "I don't think that the people making this decision understand that welding is used in... 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
Safety pays
Now more than ever, fabricators must believe that safety pays . It pays to make safety a high priority, to invest in safety training, and to provide a safe workplace. The pressure to reduce costs during this very competitive time is great, but it is imperative that owners and managers... Read more...
Article
August 14, 2003
Workplace stress—Part 2
In his bestseller, Spontaneous Healing , Andrew Weil, M.D., wrote, "All illnesses should be assumed to be stress-related until proved otherwise. Even if stress is not the primary cause of illness, it is frequently an aggravating factor. To say that a bodily complaint is... Read more...
Article
July 24, 2003
Workplace stress—Part 1
Among the many definitions of stress in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is "A mentally or emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health, usually characterized by... Read more...
Article
July 10, 2003
What price workers' compensation insurance?
According to an article in the June 23 issue of The New York Times , the cost of workers' compensation insurance has soared to its highest rate in nearly a decade, adding yet another heavy burden on businesses and the struggling national economy. Nationwide, the average cost of the... Read more...
Article
June 26, 2003
Making the workplace safe for Spanish-speaking employees
Over the past several years, the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in its population of Hispanic, Spanish-speaking people, with a corresponding impressive increase in the number of Spanish-speaking citizens who are entering the manufacturing work force. Having employees who speak limited... Read more...
Article
June 12, 2003
The future of vocational education
Many of those who responded that programs are still intact expressed concern that they may be cut in the near future. A Major Issue A recent article by Marty Rice, a welding instructor concerned about the growing trend to cut vocational and technical programs and the rumors circulating... Read more...
Article
June 12, 2003
Your best safety resource
The committee is made up of busy people—presidents, CEOs, vice presidents, directors, managers, and engineers. They come from businesses located in several states—from New York to the Deep South. They share the common struggle of helping their businesses weather the current economy,... Read more...
Article
May 29, 2003
10 questions to ask about equipment leasing
A lease finances only the value of the equipment expected to be depleted during the lease term. The lessee usually has options to return the equipment to the lessor, purchase the equipment at fair market value or a nominal fixed price, or renew the lease. Approximately eight out of 10... Read more...
Article
May 29, 2003
Predicting the service life of galvanized steel
Zinc, which has been used to hot-dip-galvanize steel for 250 years, provides 50 to 75 years of corrosion protection in many environments. Empirical data collected about hot-dip galvanized (HDG) steel field performance from 1940 to 1980—in environments ranging from industrial to... Read more...
Article
May 29, 2003
Defibrillators—Should you have one in your workplace?
Photo courtesy of American Heart Science . In December 2001 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a statement encouraging employers to consider making automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available in their workplaces. This announcement followed the... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2003
Employees value workplace health and wellness programs
A November 2002 study commissioned by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) found that nearly 60 percent of the respondents consider health and wellness program offerings from employers a viable incentive to stay at their current job. Seventy-eight percent would... Read more...
Article
August 29, 2002
Automating for the future
Object Tony Thompson and the rest of the crew at Total Tooling Inc. know the importance of quick design time. Success at the nine-person shop in rural Sabina, Ohio—which specializes in designing and manufacturing bend tooling for the automotive and aerospace markets—rests on... Read more...
Article
July 11, 2002
Technology modernizes CMMs
Coordinate measuring machines have progressed since their inception in the 1970s. Original machines were benchtop-mounted, cumbersome to use, and limited to five axes. In addition, some complex tube applications required two software programs for a complete set of measurements. These days,... Read more...
Article
December 13, 2001
Bending tube with an all-electric machine
In the tube bending industry, all-electric, CNC benders are a fairly new development but are gaining ground. They have been commercially available in Europe since 1995 and in the U.S. since 1998. Most manufacturers now either offer all-electric bending machines or are developing them. On... Read more...
Article
November 29, 2001
Tooling, the key for mill production
One of the most important lessons any successful tube mill producer learns is that high-quality tooling is mandatory to achieving and sustaining top-grade production values. To put it simply, tooling is to a tube mill as an engine is to an automobile: You can't get where you need to go without... Read more...
Article
October 11, 2001
Article
October 11, 2001
Article
October 11, 2001
Installing and maintaining coil cradles and reels
All stamping and forming operations outside of the powder or forging industries begin with coiled steel. In many fabricators' plants, the decoiler, payoff reel, recoiler, tensioner, or other coil handling equipment require constant maintenance. Installation The nature of the... Read more...
Article
July 26, 2001
Achieving faster, more efficient tube mill changeovers
A changeover on a tube mill does not mean just changing the tooling. It means changing from running good tube of one size to running good tube of another size. Many machine configurations can speed up a changeover, such as rafted sections, quick-change fasteners, etc. However, fast changeover... 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
Automated welding for job shops
A robotic welding system represents a significant capital investment for a job shop. The number and diversity of typical products that job shops produce may discourage any interest in automation, primarily because the company cannot figure out how to justify the system purchase and operation.... Read more...
Article
July 12, 2001
The growing use of orbital tube welding
This trend is due partly to orbital welding's capability to make an entrapment-free, permanent connection that is highly resistant to vibration. This makes it a good choice for joints that are not intended to be disassembled in the future. However, the appeal of orbital welding also is due to... 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
May 15, 2001
Overcoming the skilled labor shortage
The booming business climate manufacturers experienced in the '90s increased the number of jobs available to skilled workers and lowered the unemployment rate. This, along with the dirty, sweaty work image that has been, perhaps erroneously, attached to engineering has dealt a blow to recruiting... Read more...
Article
May 15, 2001
Surviving an OSHA inspection
Every employer knows about– and some fear a visit from– the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal regulator and watchdog of workplace health and safety. Unless an employer has successfully undergone an OSHA inspection or one by a parallel state agency,... Read more...
Article
February 19, 2001
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