Pinch milling

This is way cool. A good argument for upgrading the entire machine.



Pinch milling

Fanuc Update

I have been reading Fanuc brochures today and thought I'd share a couple that everyone should take a look at. We've been told that the Fanuc 16/18/21 series is ending soon. Fanuc's entire CNC product line will consist of the 0 and 30/31/32 series. Here are the links:
http://www.fanuc.co.jp/en/product/catalog/pdf/FS0i-D(E)_v02_s.pdf
http://www.fanuc.co.jp/en/product/catalog/pdf/FS30i-A(E)_v06_s.pdf

There are several other interesting links there too, but these should be first. As you all know, we tend to work on older equipment, but we'll be seeing these soon enough.

The 0 control has become a real powerhouse.

DMG Mori Seiki

Some of you know that Adam is now working for Blum Laser Measurement Technology, a German metrology company that sells probes, laser tool setters, and conventional tool length setters. As part of his training last week, he went to a show in Chicago put on by DMG Mori Seiki. This may be old news to some of you but it was a surprise to me:

http://www.dmgmoriseikiusa.com/news/dmg-and-mori-seiki-announce-combining-of-us-operations-effective-april-1-20/


It looks like Gildemeister and Mori Seiki have combined their sales and service organizations in the Americas. From what I can tell, this is not a merger, but simply an agreement to sell and service together.

Nothing stays the same.

Warren

MHI Bridge X Axis Inductosyn drooping A.3gpp

I was working on a Mitsubishi Bridge at Frontier in Gardena last week. After seeing extraordinary positioning problems (.1" or more errors in various positions on the 150" travel), we discovered that the tape scale was very loose. For those of you who are unfamiliar with tape scales made by Farrand / Inductosyn or Mitsubishi, they need to be stretched. It is hard to tell how much they need stretching ( I had to bring our laser to stretch this one), but this one is TOO LOOSE.

After proper tensioning using the laser, this axis had only point in 150" that was .0008" out of position. Most points were between 0 and .0004" out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evz57rDIbJI

Heidenhain CNC

Travis asked me to ask everyone which customers have Heidenhain controls. We have been designated as reps for their probes, and integrating them into Heidenhain controls is very easy. Therefore, he wants to approach them first. The ones that come to my mind are ATK, Mafi Trench and Paragon Precision (in Santa Clarita). If you can think of any more, please add them here or let Travis know.

We are also going to be selling Blum LMT products (Probes, Tool Setters, Laser Tool Setters) and I'll have more to say about that later.

Progress continues to be made in the area of machine monitoring using the "Refresh Your Memory" system. NOV (Varco) has just given us a P.O. to upgrade their one machine pilot project to include Feedrate Override monitoring. Upon completion of this, they will probably move forward with several more machines. Sonic in Torrance and Ontario is expanding their system. We've been given all of RYM's Westec leads for this area and are considered to be their exclusive dealer for both monitoring and DNC in Southern California.

Sharon will be off until Monday.

Warren

Who says mechanical innovation is dead

Sometimes I'm tempted to say that we'll never get back some of the old craftsmanship we had during the last industrial age. Then I run across things like this and realize that there are still gifted people out there who keep innovating. I know that harmonic and planetary reducers aren't new, but these guys seem to have found lots of new applications.

http://video.designworldonline.com/video/f932b40f4d7c4d52bd1e2b0b7d951932

Warren

Westec 2010

Most of you know that Westec was last week. You all also know that, for the first time in our company's history, we didn't ask everyone to take off one afternoon and go see it.
There were two reasons:
1) We're just coming out of the worst year in Uptime history and
2) The show just wasn't that good. In fact, the show was so bad that they aren't even having it next year and will be every other year for the foreseeable future.

That is not to say there weren't some useful displays. Travis and Jeff spent time in the "Refresh Your Memory" booth. Their machine monitoring system has great potential. We are now their exclusive reps for Southern California and all show leads for our area were given to us. Please continue to be on the lookout for prospective customers for this exciting new technology. Newer Fanuc controls with FOCAS and Haas controls are especially easy to integrate.

Now for some good news: We had not only a profitable month in March, but also a profitable first quarter. Thanks for all of your efforts. As I mentioned in a recent voice mail, we are still struggling to get paid for what we've done, but things are looking up.

Warren