Manufacturing

A continuous improvement process is how companies consistently reduce their costs by finding opportunities that will save time, materials and labor. In order to find the hidden opportunities in the…

The reduction of non-productive manufacturing time and total cycle times are one of the key elements to remaining competitive in a fabricating environment. From the time the order is received until…

When you think about press brake automation you are probably thinking of robot bending operations to increase efficiency and throughput. Press brake bending operations are in fact sequential tasks that…

High performance manufacturing is the key to maintaining higher margins, shortening customer lead times and creating competitive differentiation. OEMs and job shops that continue to ride the wave of new fabricating…

Speed and Consistency is the hallmark of today’s fiber laser cutting machinery and their capacity to process a vast amount of sheet metal on a daily basis. In order to…

Over the last several years many technological changes have affected the sheet metal fabrication industry. Many fabricators I have spoken with are amazed at the technological leaps that have occurred.…

If you’ve owned a CO2 laser cutting machine then you are familiar with the periodic maintenance required for optics, beam path bellows, beam and nozzle alignments, not to mention oil…

As I often visit metal fabrication shops it is amazing to see the myriad of CNC control interfaces, not only from different equipment manufacturers, but also how they have physically…

Achieving Higher Productivity at the Press Brake Press brakes are typically the location of bottlenecks in the metal fabrication process. Here, every aspect of the process must be looked at.…

When bigger is better: I often see production jobs that would benefit from a larger sheet size especially in a large volume run. Most companies keep inventory of different size…