Wear Abatement Strategies In Precision Machining

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Wear of equipment in our industry is not on most people’s minds nor check books.

unprotected fan blade — It didn’t look like this when we installed it…

There is no ROI on any of your shops’ equipment if your ablity to process chips is stopped because your chip processing system is non-functional due to a foreseeable and preventable wear failure.

Here are 6 wear abatement strategies for the world of high abrasion, high impact, 60-G force chip wringing and fluid recovery:

Make sure high wear surfaces are easily replaceable; liner, screen, top cover, discharge housing;
Make sure that abrasion resistant materials are properly specified for those parts subject to sliding friction;
Protect specific areas such as impact zones, liner, and vanes and key structural welds with hard facing;
Use Grade 1 screen material to maximize life of separation area;
Manganese steel is a choice for areas encountering both sliding and impact wear;
Nickel hardened castings can be used for critical transitions and joints in air discharge style equipment.

Just as we use specialized coatings to maximize output on our tools, selecting specialized materials for critical components in balance of plant equipment like chip processing equipment can assure durability and routine operation instead of creating another maintenance headache to add to the list.

For most of us, wear abatement strategies are limited to getting the right coatings on our tools and using the proper cutting oil. Yet we are vulnerable to wear failures in our balance of plant anciliaries such as chip wringers and processors.

In my steel cold finishing mill, I had shot blasters for removing scale from hot rolled bars. These shot blasters used 4140 Q&T hardened steel shot that literally ate the machines up from the inside out due to abrasive wear.

I remember increasing uptime and service life in my blasters by strategically placing hardfacing and upgraded components, just as the Prab strategies discuss.

I hope you never lose a shift of production because of lack of attention to high wear applications somewhere critical in your shop…

Where else in our shops is abrasive and sliding wear a vulnerability?

Nanosteel (photocredit)

Wear Abatement Article – Production Machining

Prab Inc.

Skilled Workforce-PMPA Partners With Manufacturing Institute

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The Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA) has partnered with The Manufacturing Institute to expand Right Skills Now, a fast-track machining training program aligned to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System.

Press Release Manufacturing Institute copy — Working together to help talented people connect with careers in advanced manufacturing.

Right Skills Now and the Skills Certification System are successful programs that are building the educated and skilled workforce manufacturers need to successfully compete in the global economy.

We have seen estimates of up to 600,000 open jobs available in advanced manufacturing. Positions in precision machining, tool making, welding, and quality control are jobs where you can make a rewarding career as well as a living.

PMPA and The Manufacturing Institute are combining forces to help make information available about these careers, programs where you can get started to qualify for these careers, and to promote the use of credentials and the Skills Certification System to assure employers of the ability to perform defined skills and operations. Expanding Right Skills Now will help make the training and credentials more widely available.

Read the full release.

For more information to help you decide if a career in precision manufacturing is for you, go to PMPA Career Page.

Just because everyone else is unemployed doesn’t mean that you have to make the same decision that they did. Get the facts about a career in advanced manufacturing.

8 Reasons to Stress Relieve Cold Drawn Steel Bars

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Here are 8 reasons why you might want to consider stress relieving the steel before machining your parts.

High carbon grade of steel. Alloy grades over 0.40 carbon and carbon grades above 0.50 carbon can often benefit from stress relief.
Heavy draft to make size. Heavy draft can add cold working strain which can set up stresses in the part.
Small diameter parts. The percentage of cold work (strain) is higher for the same draft reduction as diameter decreases.
Long parts. Stresses tend to display and their effects increase longitudinally.
Assymetric parts– and parts with large differences in section or mass.
To increase mechanical properties. At lower stress relieving temperatures, the hardness, tensile strength, and elastic properties of most cold drawn steels increase.
To decrease mechanical properties. At higher stress relieving temperatures, hardness, tensile strength and yield strength are reduced while % elongation and 5 reduction of area are increased.
To reduce distortion off the machine. Usually stress relieving is used as a last ditch effort to reduce the distortion that presents after machining a part with some or many of the characteristics given above.

There are certain applications where stress relief (of steel) is indicated

Stress relieving is a lower than the material’s critical point thermal treatment also known as strain drawing, strain tempering, strain annealling, strain relieving, or pre-aging. It is performed to modify the the magnitude and distribution of of residual forces within a cold drawn steel bar, as well as to modify the mechanical properties.

Thanks Seth at Sixthman Blog for the photo.

Additive Manufacturing- Art Not Parts

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I have to admit that I am ~~a critical thinker~~ skeptical about the whole idea of additive manufacturing as a viable commercial production process.

As a guy who has dealt with Detroit 3 automakers’ purchasing departments, and had to manage production, purchasing, inventory, operations, and engineering, I am not easily swayed by the breathless musings of “unlimited potential ” and “the sky is the limit” claims of a seemingly endless number of fanboy proponents of this new “Additive Technology” craze.

But even a ~~critical thinker~~ skeptic like me (who knows about cycle time setup time, and EOQ’s (economic order quantities ) has to acknowledge that the process can do some pretty fancy stuff, even if it doesn’t look like the precision machined products we currently sell.

art1 adj — Art- not part. This I grant you.

art3 adj — A tisket a tasket, this one ain’t made of plastic…

Even a grudging skeptic like me can recognize the beauty of the articles currently being produced by this new additive manufacturing process.

But I still question whether this will displace the close tolerance, high precision, high volume, low cycle time parts our industry manufactures economically by our ever improving “subtractive manufacturing technologies.”

Do I lack the vision to see where this technology will be in our future? Am I too close to the trees of subtractive manufacturing to see the forest of All viable manufacturing processes?

I don’t think so.

But the additive technology as a viable manufacturing process today would seem to be easily summed up in just three words.

Art not parts.

(to be continued)

7 Tips Fom Bernard Martin to Optimize LinkedIn

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This social media / networking stuff is new to all of us, so here are seven tips from Bernard Martin on how to optimize your profile on LinkedIn.

Fill in all the blanks.
Connect to everyone that you know.
Make sure that you are “open”to connect.
Develop a department level outline for Linked In Profiles, Settings, (URL’s and Links).
Define “Who” Targets “Whom.”
Leverage your company’s connections at “individual” level.
Create / develop your company profile.

Bernard Martin is President of Rapid Production Marketing and is active contributor on many LinkedIn groups in the manufacturing space.

Bernard Martin crop — Bernard Martin IMTSedu Linked In Session

He is frighteningly active on Twitter @rpmconsultants .

He has always advanced the conversation when he has contributed to discussions in which I was involved.

I think that these 7 takeaways were worth the time I took away from walking the exhibits at IMTS. Your LinkedIn profile is important because this is how you are seen online professionally these days.

How you are seen by your colleagues, employer, competitors, and customers.

What tips do you have for effectively using your LinkedIn Resources?

Housing Slowly Improves- Manufacturing Just Holding Its Own

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The housing industry seems to be making slow but steady gains while manufacturing seems to be slowing.

Housing market Sept 2012 — Precision machining companies make components used in housing technologies like HVAC and appliances.

PMPA’s Business Trends Index for August is up 6 points to 117 from 111 in July, but shipments are at a level just 93% of same time last year. Our industry shows shipments up 4 % year to date. Our index is contrary to the Fed’s IP numbers for August. The Fed reported that Industrial Production fell 1.2% in August after having risen after having risen 0.5% in July. We see demand as holding on and our shops report that they continue to “hold their own.”

august 2012 Business Trends — Precision machining is holding its own

According to Chad Moutray at NAM, ” … the housing picture continues to show slow-but-steady gains, with increasing optimism in a sector that continues to have large hurdles. Housing starts rose 2.3 percent in August, with an annualized 750,000 new residential units being built. This continues an upward trajectory, particularly for single-family homes. Housing permits, while down somewhat for the month, remained more than 800,000, indicating that the housing market should continue to expand moving forward. Existing home sales were also higher, and homebuilder confidence rose to its highest level in more than six years.”

I see the return of housing, even at its current low rate, as a positive sign for our industry. Diversifying markets and mix is better than ‘live or die’ with a single market segment. A varied diet is good for our personal health, and the industry will be healthier when the choices we have are more varied than only one or two markets to serve.

Five Costs of Workplace Injuries

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Bill Margaretta, president of the New Jersey State Safety Council, outlined the five common cost elements related to workplace injuries in a great article on EHS online:

Emergency response
Reports and case management
Interrupted operations
Lost revenue
Cost of damage

We think that Bill is ‘spot on’ with his five points, though we would add “Cost of reassessing and designing the process” to the above points.

We always see things, especially safety, through the lens of continuous improvement.

magnifying glass — We see things through the lens of continuous improvement

Thanks to EHS for hosting the panel discussion and publishing the conclusions.

Every one of us has a stake in safety, and Margaretta’s 5 points above are a great reminder of the financial non-human costs of workplace injuries.

Who want’s to come up with a list of the human impacts of workplace injuries to complement this list?

Lens

Why Manufacturing Is Your Best Choice Today

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Manufacturing is your best career choice today.

The idea that there is just one narrative for success- go to college and get a good paying job- is no longer a workable one. The majority of unemployed people today have some college.

Today College assures most students’ debt, but not neccessarily a high paying job.

More than 53% of the unemployed having some college, and the unemployment rate for recent college grads over 10%.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that “about 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years… Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.”

Recent college grads are actually faring worse in today’s job market than the overall youth population. And compared to the older college-educated populace, they have at least twice the rate of unemployment.

Over half of recent college graduates jobless/underemployed? In debt with no higher paying job to make the loan payments? Unable to make loan repayments waiting tables?

The Skills Solution.

Manufacturers need skilled workers.

Manufacturers are looking for people who

Can solve problems,
Are comfortable with math,
Are capable of working without a lot of direct supervision.

Community colleges offer programs in CNC machining, offerring programs that award credentials and certificates for a short duration study program, as well as 2 year associate degrees for a formal course of study.

Consider Manufacturing.

Manufacturing is recovering.
Manufacturing has the most traction coming out of the last recession.
Baby Boomer retirements (10,000 per day turn 65 years old !) are creating an opportunity rich environment.

I would try to get employment in advanced manufacturing and then build on that with additional training at local community colleges.

Right Skills Now is one way to get started.

There are other schools and other programs in your area.

The idea of one narrative for success- go to college and get a good paying job- is no longer a workable one.

In manufacturing, you will be making things that make a difference in people’s lives, and the quality of their lives- things like anti-lock brakes, air bag safety devices, orthopedic and medical device, aerospace parts to name a few- I would urge you to consider a job in manufacturing. It is safe, well paid, and between upgrading your knowledge and skills and the inevitable retirements of people already on the job, this might just be the best possible career wave you will find.

Loaded with Debt

Wave

Industrial Production and Manufacturing Output Fell in August 2012

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According to the Fed last Friday: “Industrial production fell 1.2 percent in August after having risen 0.5 percent in July. Hurricane Isaac restrained output in the Gulf Coast region at the end of August, reducing the rate of change in total industrial production by an estimated 0.3 percentage point. Manufacturing output decreased 0.7 percent in August after having risen 0.4 percent in both June and July… At 96.8 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in August was 2.8 percent above its year-earlier level.”

IPAug2012 — Industrial production fell 1.2% in August.

“Capacity utilization for total industry moved down 1.0 percentage point to 78.2 percent, a rate 2.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2011) average.”

CapUtilAug2012 — Down 1% from last month and 2.1% below long run average.

PMPA will have our Business Trends Index for August numbers compiled later this week, but we were surprised by the plunge on IP to levels below February 2012. The direction of revisions of prior months’ data downwards is not optimistic, nor is the full point drop in Capacity Utilization.

3 Reasons to Rethink our Optimism?

Both Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization fell.
Direction of revised numbers were all negative.
You can’t argue with Capacity Utilization being sub-longterm average.

Challenge question for your shop: So what are YOU going to DO about it?

Fed Release

Charts

Vision of Your Skilled Workforce in 2020

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BLS published the data behind the above look at our workforce in 2020 earlier this year.

BLS Workforce

But it was something that we saw at IMTS made us really think about how this issue will affect our shops- see the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5eZqzu8mbE&feature=plcp]

What are you doing to make sure that your vision of your shop’s skilled workforce in 2020 isn’t a shiny faced robot?