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More from Tim Heston
- From The Fabricator
Five Septembers ago: Metal fabrication and the financial crisis
- By Tim Heston
- Sep 17, 2013
- Assembly and Joining
- Blog Post
In hindsight, it’s ironic. It was early September 2008, and FABTECH was set to open in Las Vegas in a few weeks. Up until that point a hot bed of growth, especially in real estate. But then Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Still, even a few weeks into the crisis, the metal fabrication...
- From The Fabricator
How a worldwide shipper acts like a job shop
- By Tim Heston
- Sep 9, 2013
- Shop Management
- Blog Post
How is Maersk’s new Triple E class containerships—nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall—like a job shop? Forget the fact that, as reported by BusinessWeek, the behemoth is designed to go only 16 knots to save fuel. Sure, heat-capture devices use heat from the massive ship...
- From The Fabricator
The industry gets a quarterly physical
- By Tim Heston
- Sep 5, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
According to the inaugural Forming & Fabricating Job Shop Consumption Report, released in July, business isn’t horrible, but it’s not gangbusters either.
- From The Fabricator
Complete work instructions keystone of improvement
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 9, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
Shops start improving by measuring and documenting what they already do, because they can’t improve what they don’t measure.
- From The Fabricator
The basics of wheel blasting
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 1, 2013
- Finishing
- Article
Blast cleaning can be an extremely effective way to prepare a part for coating. But if the machine isn’t set up, maintained, or monitored properly, the operation can go awry.
- From The Fabricator
Punch tooling strategy for punching thousands and thousands of holes
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 1, 2013
- Punching and Other Holemaking
- Article
Carter Day International punches thousands of holes to make specialized screens. One screen can take several hours to punch. Problem is, the company doesn’t have enough volume to warrant using a specialized perforation press. So it uses a traditional turret punch press, but with highly durable tooling.
- From The Fabricator
The gut-punch of Detroit in bankruptcy
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 29, 2013
- Shop Management
- Blog Post
In 2009 I landed in Detroit and saw a billboard I’ll never forget. I was on my way to FMA's ALAW, the Advanced Laser Applications Workshop, and there was a massive billboard advertising something you rarely if ever see on the interstate. Metal fabricator W Industries was touting its ability to...
- From The Fabricator
Google Glass meets manufacturing
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 18, 2013
- Machining
- Blog Post
We may be entering a new manufacturing age. OK, that’s hyperbole, but it’s one that comes to mind after you step back and think of just how far we’ve come, even during the past 10 years. First, consider the biggest challenges in U.S. manufacturing, most of which deals with high-product-mix...
- From The Fabricator
An end to silos and fiefdoms
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 12, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
If an organization is looking to streamline its turnaround time—the moment an order is received to the time it is shipped to the customers—it requires healthy communication among employees and, not least, the destruction of silos and fiefdoms.
- From The Fabricator
Integrating stamping, fabricating, and assembly
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 12, 2013
- Assembly and Joining
- Article
Genesee Stampings and Fabrication has undergone a strategic shift from its core stamping and fabricating business. It has added an assembly operation to the shop floor.
- From The Fabricator
A solid model for modernizing a fabricator
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 11, 2013
- Manufacturing Software
- Article
Matot, a small dumbwaiter manufacturer in the Chicago suburbs, is a microcosm of high-product-mix, low-volume manufacturing. Fabricators no longer make it work on the floor. Instead, they adjust the model to suit the process.
- From The Fabricator
The entrepreneur and the engineer
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 9, 2013
- Bending and Forming
- Blog Post
In our August print edition of The FABRICATOR will be another installment of Steve Benson’s Bending Basics series. Benson, president of consulting firm ASMA LLC, Salem, Ore., and a press brake guru who runs press brake certification seminars for the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association,...
- From The Fabricator
Technology and procedures working in concert
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 8, 2013
- Automation and Robotics
- Blog Post
At LeanFab Workshop & Tours, organized by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, and held last month in Columbus, Ohio, Dave Lechleitner asked attendees to draw a pig. The presales principal at Exact Software, Minneapolis, wasn’t playing an odd joke. Instead, he was...
- From The Fabricator
Inspired fabrication atop One World Trade Center
- By Tim Heston
- Jul 2, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
Kammetal Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., has seen its work reach the top. The company fabricated the uppermost part of the spire that now sits atop One World Trade Center.
- From The Fabricator
About good people working together
- By Tim Heston
- Jun 28, 2013
- Shop Management
- Article
Collaboration between creative minds--employing some refreshing cut-to-the-chase rationality to uncover the best processes for the product at hand--may be why people catch the manufacturing bug.
- Podcasting
- Podcast:
- The Fabricator Podcast
- Published:
- 04/30/2024
- Running Time:
- 53:00
Seth Feldman of Iowa-based Wertzbaugher Services joins The Fabricator Podcast to offer his take as a Gen Zer...
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- June 5 - 6, 2024
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- June 25 - 27, 2024
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- July 31 - August 1, 2024
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- Upcoming Webcasts
Navigating Change: The Manufacturer’s Guide to Change Management with ERP Implementation
- May 16, 2024
- Sponsored
- Presented By: ECI Software Solutions, M1
Managing Dangerous Dusts from Metalworking
- June 26, 2024
- Sponsored
- Presented By: Camfil Air Pollution Control