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Articles - Page 213
Custom-made tube bender handles challenging shapes, eliminates scrap
- By Eric Lundin
- Nov 2, 2015
- Tube and Pipe Fabrication
- Article
Exercise equipment manufacturer Cybex International makes workout machines with tubular frames from parts it bends in-house. The company has quite a bit of bending expertise, but one problem it couldn’t resolve was the bending of short lengths. A custom-made bender from Unison provided Cybex with the capability it needed.
- From The Fabricator
Welding prep in pressure vessel fabrication
- By Tony Hufford
- Oct 28, 2015
- Cutting and Weld Prep
- Article
The welds in pressure vessel fabrication have to be of the highest quality. The proper surface preparation tools and techniques can help to ensure those critical welds pass the toughest inspections.
- From The Fabricator
Is manual material handling necessary in the structural steel fab shop?
- By Tom Boyer
- Oct 28, 2015
- Materials Handling
- Article
The days of relying on operators to oversee the transfer of structural steel sections one at a time and convey each member to the proper lineal position for movement to the next operation are numbered. Automation technology is poised to make manual intervention in material handling a thing of the past.
- From The Fabricator
Oil country tubular goods hit a rough patch
- By Dan Davis
- Oct 28, 2015
- Tube and Pipe Production
- Article
An industry observer says the OCTG industry is in “turm-oil,” which is hard to dispute. Falling prices, a global economic slowdown, and an excess of supply is going to keep the industry down for the near term.
- From The Fabricator
A grand unifying theory of press brake bending: Part II
- By Steve Benson
- Oct 28, 2015
- Bending and Forming
- Article
Radius bends—defined here as any bend with an inside radius greater than 125 percent of the material thickness—require careful calculation, not only because of their significant springback, but also because of the tooling these bends require. This includes the use of relieved dies.
- From The Fabricator
Shop technology and 3-D CAD: In-context modeling
- By Gerald Davis
- Oct 28, 2015
- Shop Management
- Article
Columnist Gerald Davis continues his work on a go-cart body. This time the focus is on modeling weldments with an eye on accommodating future edits.
- From The Fabricator
Customizable welding tables simplify operations and enhance productivity
- By Michelle Howell
- Oct 28, 2015
- Shop Management
- Article
The best welding tables are multipurpose and designed for maximum efficiency and productivity. Here’s what to look for when choosing tables for your operation.
Small-scale laser cutting for stent, tube fabrication
- By Eric Lundin
- Oct 27, 2015
- Laser Cutting
- Article
Metal fabricators have been using CO2 lasers for decades and fiber lasers for years, but these technologies aren’t optimal for making the ultrafine features needed for medical devices such as catheters and stents. Femtosecond disk lasers recently have emerged as a viable technology for such applications.
Electropolishing applications and techniques
- By Johnson H. Cutchin Sr.
- Oct 27, 2015
- Finishing
- Article
Electropolishing isn’t necessarily a standalone process; it often complements mechanical finishing. This article examines how two processes provide levels of smoothness, cleanliness, and corrosion resistance beyond those provided by mechanical finishing alone, as it applies to stainless steel base materials.
- From The Fabricator
Know your press brake safeguarding options
Press brake users should know how to work with their machine safely, and part of this is knowing what safeguards are available, and what each can and cannot do.
- From The Fabricator
Servomechanical press makes foray into hot stamping
- By Aitor Ormaetxea and Gorka Ibañez
- Oct 26, 2015
- Bending and Forming
- Article
As corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards require increasingly lighter vehicles, stamping manufacturers look for innovative ways, such as hot stamping, to form increasingly harder metals. Hydraulic presses have been the default technology for hot-stamping presses. Now servo-mechanical presses have entered the arena that hydraulic presses previously soloed, offering improved energy efficiency, cycle time, and reliability.
- From The Fabricator
Lightweighting, downgauging bumpers without buckling
- By Madhu Jampala
- Oct 26, 2015
- Metals/Materials
- Article
The advantages of ultrahigh-strength steels are that they can absorb energy at thinner gauges than mild steels, so metal formers can reduce mass by up to 20 percent by using them. This article, converted from a presentation from the Great Designs in Steel 2015 conference, evaluates optimizing geometries for three different forming processes--hot-forming, hot-stamping, roll forming--to solve challenges to forming thin-gauge materials to achieve light-weighting.
- From The Fabricator
How managing by valuation is changing Farris Fab
- By Tim Heston
- Oct 26, 2015
- Shop Management
- Article
Farris Fab has grown to become a $24.5 million enterprise. Within the past year company leaders have started to manage by valuation. They have no intention to sell, but maximizing the value of the company also happens to improve the overall operation.
- From The Fabricator
How lubricant roller application systems reduce friction without the oil slick
- By Kyle Billin
- Oct 22, 2015
- Bending and Forming
- Article
Applying the right amount blots waste, cost. Roller lubrication systems apply lubricants in a consistent film across the coil.
- From The Fabricator
Real job shops
- By Professor R. Carlisle "Carl" Smith
- Oct 22, 2015
- Shop Management
- Article
Some metal fabricating operations produce the same product day in and day out with little variation. Real job shops, which are becoming rarer, have a much tougher row to hoe, one that requires constant innovation and high skill levels.
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The Fabricator is North America's leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The Fabricator has served the industry since 1970.
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In this episode of The Fabricator Podcast, Caleb Chamberlain, co-founder and CEO of OSH Cut, discusses his company’s...
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