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The Fabricator July 2007
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.
Advances in automation broaden punching capabilities
- By Anthony Marzullo
- Jul 10, 2007
- Punching and Other Holemaking
- Article
Increasingly metal fabricators are turning to automated equipment to reduce production downtime and costs, streamline manufacturing, minimize material handling, and address a shortage of skilled labor. Automating punch press operations can range from adding a simple load/unload device to implementing a midlevel material handling system or lights-out production cell to robotics and full tower and storage capabilities. Deciding whether to add automation depends largely on the application.
How to keep automated welding from 'going around in circles'
- By Jeffrey Noruk and Richard Garner
- Jul 10, 2007
- Automation and Robotics
- Article
The move from manual welding to some form of machine or automated welding has been going on in all industries--including water heater manufacturing--for years. It's part of a desire to improve productivity and quality. A.O. Smith's American Water Heater Div. in Johnson City, Tenn., learned that first-hand.
Knocked down, but not out
- Jul 10, 2007
- Bending and Forming
- Article
It would be an understatement to say that contract manufacturer EPMP Ltd., Seguin, Texas, got off to an inauspicious start. After just four years of operation, Ernest Plant sold the slumping company in 1988. This appeared to be just another short story of a failed start-up manufacturing shop....
Constant radius or variable radius?
- By Sabine Neff
- Jul 10, 2007
- Tube and Pipe Fabrication
- Article
While rotary draw bending is the mainstay of the tube bending industry, variable-radius bending is making some headway. Variable-radius bending offers many advantages, primarily more sophisticated bends and faster cycle times. However, it has limitations, too. A main one is that an initial bend must be a minimum of approximately 15 degrees.
Lifestyle trends expand use of lasers, ALAW presenters say
- By Kate Bachman
- Jul 10, 2007
- Laser Welding
- Article
ALAW 2007 was held April 17 to 19, in Plymouth, Mich. The second two days of the conference focused on laser technology in automotive research and applications and were geared mostly to manufacturing, production, product design, and R&D engineers.Societal demands driving greater dependence on laser technology are energy and environmental concerns, as well as customization.
Keeping stainless flawless for appliance stamping, fabrication
- By Jim Russell
- Jul 10, 2007
- Bending and Forming
- Article
Before stainless steel is stamped, bent or folded, and fabricated into an appliance, stampers, other fabricators and coil processors need to do damage control as they process stainless steel coil through 7 damage-danger zones.
Better safe than saw awry
- By Dan Davis
- Jul 10, 2007
- Materials Handling
- Article
When a machine operator cut a bundle of barstock open to load into a saw, the bands popped, moving the blocks that were put there to safely contain the bars. The bars fell on the operator's foot and trapped it. Not wanting to duplicate that nightmare, engineers at Kirsan Engineering, Kenosha, Wis., set about to create a method of loading barstock that relied on lift trucks, not cranes.
Tube fabricator, machine tool builder automates to accelerate
- By Dan Davis
- Jun 12, 2007
- Tube and Pipe Fabrication
- Article
Stealth Manufacturing Inc., Savage, Minn., is a tube fabricator, and machine tool builder that automated its tube punching, laser cutting, and material handling to improve the efficiency of manufacturing its gas heater tubes and other tubular products.
Don't underestimate India
- By Nancy Olson
- Jun 12, 2007
- Shop Management
- Article
TPA recently hosted a tour of eight tube and pipe producers and fabricators throughout India. Although the country is not advanced, this tour and a recent report by Goldman Sachs reveal where it stands and where it is likely to go in the near future. Its capabilities are modernizing and Goldman Sachs expects its economy to overtake the U.S. economy by 2050.
Wise words from the mountaintop—Part 7
- By Gerald Davis
- Jul 13, 2004
- Shop Management
- Article
Editor's Note: This is the seventh episode in a mountaintop dialogue that Gerald has been having with a "wise business guru." They have been talking about sales training. "Why does it matter whether the sales staff understands this concept of buying a contract? If they are getting orders and the...
- Podcasting
- Podcast:
- The Fabricator Podcast
- Published:
- 04/16/2024
- Running Time:
- 63:29
In this episode of The Fabricator Podcast, Caleb Chamberlain, co-founder and CEO of OSH Cut, discusses his company’s...
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