Rosemarie Stahl

Plastic doesn't have a good reputation, and there are plenty reasons for this. However, our everyday life today would be inconceivable without plastic. Is it too easy a thing to condemn the material?

Last year, Dormer Pramet in Šumperk, Czech Republic, inaugurated its Experience Centre. During a tour of the new and old buildings, the manufacturer of indexable inserts presented itself as an innovative company with a comprehensive R&D department and state-of-the-art technology.

Gotools is a British company located in Rotherham, a 90-minute drive from Birmingham. In only a little over five years of existence, the company has managed to record a growth of around 50% per year. All that success started with the decision to buy a new EDM machine.

In most cases, technical innovations that have a great impact on many areas of everyday live also have an impact on the language we use to talk about them. Sometimes, new words are introduced. Think of the internet or the smartphone, for example. In some cases, it is a little bit more difficult, especially when words that describe the new phenomenon already exist. But are they always fitting?

Günther Hot Runner Technology is known to most toolmakers. Even though the company has a sales and service network all over the world today, the company still manufactures exclusively in Germany. ETMM spoke with Managing Director Siegrid Sommer and Head of Sales and Technical Consulting Horst-Werner Bremmer about what distinguishes Günther from other hot runner providers.

At the recently held ISTMA General Assembly in Brazil, Bob Williamson was elected President for the next three-year period. Williamson is the representative of TASA (Toolmaking Association of South Africa) at the International Special Tooling and Machining Association.

While many manufacturers are already automating their processes, or at least some of them, they may have bigger problems inviting their employees on the journey towards Industry 4.0. Many workers in the industry fear for their jobs. But do they have to? And how can manufacturers prepare their workforce for digitalisation?

Walther Wolf is one of those mould makers that is constantly optimising manufacturing processes. When they wanted to further perfect their automation in machining electrodes, they turned to Zimmer & Kreim to build an automated 23-metre-long machining centre: A Chameleon.

Somewhere in the Portuguese no-man’s land between Lisbon and Porto there are two cities simply brimming with plastic injection mould makers. With 150 companies, Marinha Grande is home to one of these clusters. Some streets here are lined with nothing but mould makers.

Is globalisation a blessing or a curse? During the last year, everything pointed towards the latter. The influence of politics on the European economy has been particularly strong in 2016. The future impact on European tool and mould makers is uncertain.

When traditional machining methods reach their limit, electric discharge machining can be the answer. The EDM process allows for high accuracy and is applicable for any conductive material.

In most cases, technical innovations that have a great impact on many areas of everyday live also have an impact on the language we use to talk about them. Sometimes, new words are introduced. Think of the internet or the smartphone, for example. In some cases, it is a little bit more difficult, especially when words that describe the new phenomenon already exist. But are they always fitting?

Compared to other materials, aluminium is rather simple to machine. At least it seems much more effortless than steel, for example. Nevertheless, there are several mistakes that can be made when machining this material, including the choice of the wrong tool, that impact productivity.

When joining metals together, the usual method is welding. This, however, leads to changes in their structure as well as their appearance. Researchers have now developed an alternative that is able to join aluminium alloys with each other and with polymers.

Somewhere in the Portuguese no-man’s land between Lisbon and Porto there are two cities simply brimming with plastic injection mould makers. With 150 companies, Marinha Grande is home to one of these clusters. Some streets here are lined with nothing but mould makers.

The fax and telephone era in the steel and metal trading business is coming to an end. The winners will be the traders who have been quick and purposeful in the digitisation of their processes. The development will lead to fully automatic steel supply via the Internet of Things – with or without steel traders.

Günther Hot Runner Technology is known to most toolmakers. Even though the company has a sales and service network all over the world today, the company still manufactures exclusively in Germany. ETMM spoke with Managing Director Siegrid Sommer and Head of Sales and Technical Consulting Horst-Werner Bremmer about what distinguishes Günther from other hot runner providers.

Is globalisation a blessing or a curse? During the last year, everything pointed towards the latter. The influence of politics on the European economy has been particularly strong in 2016. The future impact on European tool and mould makers is uncertain.

Last year, Dormer Pramet in Šumperk, Czech Republic, inaugurated its Experience Centre. During a tour of the new and old buildings, the manufacturer of indexable inserts presented itself as an innovative company with a comprehensive R&D department and state-of-the-art technology.

The Purmundus Challenge is looking for smart 3D printing technology: At the next Formenxt powered by tct exhibition, the winners of the Purmundus challenge will be announced.

No, additive manufacturing will not replace mass production processes any time soon. However, as a supporting technology, it can improve mould-making processes drastically, upgrading manufacturing efficiency.

Gotools is a British company located in Rotherham, a 90-minute drive from Birmingham. In only a little over five years of existence, the company has managed to record a growth of around 50% per year. All that success started with the decision to buy a new EDM machine.

Plastic doesn't have a good reputation, and there are plenty reasons for this. However, our everyday life today would be inconceivable without plastic. Is it too easy a thing to condemn the material?

How will the supplier industry develop once the combustion engine becomes obsolete? Experts give the all-clear: Electric motors continue to rely on castings. Yet foundries and die-casting companies still need to prepare themselves for the transformation.

Conventional chucks or face plates reach their limits in cutting applications where thin walled parts are concerned. the parts are deformed in the clamping process, shaping and geometric tolerances are difficult to adhere to and the interference contours of the clamping devices restrict the accessibility. However, there are alternatives.

For the tenth time, Control will be held at the Stuttgart Exhibition Centre. 538,000m² of exhibition floor space will attract visitors from all over the globe to learn about the latest developments and innovations in measuring, testing and analysing.

The future of tool manufacturing is a smart one: Industry 4.0 is advancing quickly and demands not only smart factories but also smart tools. Data analysis and adaptability are key for keeping up to date.

Cost pressure and fierce global competition are nothing new to toolmakers. Still, the industry is constantly changing and 2018 comes with other problems than those of 2008. What does 2018 have in store for tooling and moulding?

Aircraft manufacturers, automotive OEMs and designers: When rapid production of small batches of complex parts is required, more and more companies are turning to 3D metal printing. However, there are ways for traditional foundries to make friends with the competing manufacturing method.

Walther Wolf is one of those mould makers that is constantly optimising manufacturing processes. When they wanted to further perfect their automation in machining electrodes, they turned to Zimmer & Kreim to build an automated 23-metre-long machining centre: A Chameleon.

From 22 to 25 May 2018, business professionals from various sectors of the plastics and rubber processing industry will gather in Kielce, Poland, to view the latest innovations. The Polish plastics industry can look foward to four days filled with everything around plastics.

Eleven years after its accession to the EU, Bulgaria faces a political challenge; in the first half of 2018, it holds the EU presidency for the first time. Prime Minister Boiko Borisov wishes to use the presidency to drive the EU integration of the entire region of South-Eastern Europe.

Germany - At the annual press conference of VDW, Dr Heinz-Jürgen Prokop, chairman of VDW, was optimistic about future trends in the German machine tool sector. Political insecurities in UK and US, however, dampen the enthusiasm at the beginning of the year.

Matsuura Machinery announced that Joseph Bellis has been appointed Additive Manufacturing Sales and Technical Specialist.

Italy – Plast 2018, the international exhibition for the plastics and rubber industries in Italy, is already steering towards great success in 2018: two thirds of 2015's exhibition space have already been booked. Perhaps the positive trend is due to the expectations of the Italian National Industrial Plan 4.0, that supports companies for example with amortisations.

Milacron’s Mold-Masters product brand is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its European headquarters in Baden-Baden, Germany. For 30 years, the manufacturing facility and administrative office have been manufacturing, selling and supporting hot runners and control systems.

The Chinese die and mould industry will meet in June at Die & Mould China. The industry, which was once known for its cheap and low quality products, has come a long way and able to compete on a global scale.

With the goal to replace foreign imports, Pascal Medical has set up a facility in Dubna, Russia. On the floor of the 10,000-square-metre factory, a total of twelve Husky systems are in full operation.

Prototyping and small-batch production are typical application areas of 3D printing. If the physical properties of injection-moulded parts are needed, however, 3D-printed moulds may be a viable solution. Depending on the requirements, plastic or metal 3D printing makes sense.

VDW, organiser of Metav 2018, has invited journalist to an international press conference hosted by Phoenix Contact. Main topics of this event were digital process chains, additive manufacturing, and Industry 4.0.

You don’t often hear of someone claiming to have been surrounded by wire-cut EDM systems as a child. But Andreas Hornung, the managing director of Hornung, fondly remembers the machines of his father’s firm. Today, the company is equipped with several machines from Mitsubishi Electric.

Even though the products manufactured by Shenyang Machine Tool are relatively simple, the competition from Germany and Japan has a strong advantage. Since technical innovations for productivity leaps do not appear to be in sight, the Chinese manufacturer is focusing on digitisation.

Germany - The collection and analysis of data is the corner stone of Industry 4.0. Many manufacturers buy new machines because the old ones lack this function and are not equipped with the neccesary technology. Fraunhofer IPT now makes it possible to make old machines fit for Industry 4.0 with its V-Box.

New cutting tools are continuously being introduced to the market, but what is the process needed to develop a product from concept through to the spindle? Global company Dormer Pramet tasks its product management and development department with creating new tools every year.

While the image of packaging is currently divided, the fact remains that it is still a large part of the injection moulding industry. As a matter of fact, it makes up the largest portion in both the French and Italian industry.

With the “Supersonic 3D Deposition” technology, “SPEE3D” has developed a 3D printing technology that accelerates air up to supersonic speed, depositing metal powders onto a substrate. This technology is said to offer 3D metal printing at production speed.

With vivid colours for the Stratasys J750 3D printer, Audi hopes to quickly produce transparent, mulit-coloured parts meeting texture and colour-matching requirements of its stringent design approval process.

Italy-based Zare, a leading Italian company in precision engineering, trusts the reliable and high-precision technology from SLM Solutions for manufacturing in the aerospace industry. The company from Boretto is expanding its machinery with an SLM 280 2.0.

As a precision manufacturer at the high end of its sector, Eropräzisa makes no compromises with its milling tools. This is why, for the last few years, it has decided to commit to using the MMC Hitachi Tool range of tools for 'hard milling' operations, i.e., machining after the heat treatment process.

The term industry 4.0 is hyped especially at trade fairs, but the digital transformation is also met with fear among manufacturers and their professionals: will their expertise become obsolete in the age of digitalisation? Alexander Epple and Michael Königs explain, why the knowledge and experience of experts will still be needed in the future.

The machine tool industry is breaking one record after another. The positive trend of the previous year continued in the first quarter of 2018. There are signs of solid growth in both order intake and production.

Lubricant manufacturer Zeller + Gmelin has won the Bosch Global Supplier Award in the category “Indirect Purchasing”. With the award, Bosch honors its suppliers for the 15th time this year. 18 of the 44 award winners of 2017 come from Germany.

Foremost Specialist Products is a subcontract manufacturer of precision engineered components based in Derby, UK. To take on the “complex and awkward parts that no else wants to tackle”, the company has invested in a Sodick ALC600G CNC wire-erosion machine from Sodi-Tech EDM. Among the jobs being successfully accommodated by the machine are stainless steel tubular stem guides for power generator turbines.

Japanese machine tool manufacturer Makino Milling Machine reports a flying start to the new financial year after the record year 2017. Major investments are being made to increase production capacity and expand smart production and IoT technologies, the company states.

At EMO Hannover 2017, Jongen has presented a number of new products. Highlights were the newly developed face milling cutters Jongen Uni-Mill A20 and the milling programme Jongen Uni-Mill FP 70.

The more a cutting edge is tangentially engaged during milling, the faster the machining. LMT Tools has found a solution for radial cutters that ensures significantly shorter throughput times and better surface quality. What exactly is behind the increase in performance and where are radial cutters used?

The Double Action Vacuumjet and the Smart Vacuumjet are two new vacuum devices made by Cumsa. Compared to other Cumsa vacuum systems, they are able to create vacuum (60L/min) in the mould cavity and also blow off (6 bar) through the same channel.

After five days, the twentieth international exhibition for metalworking technologies ended on 24 February. The trade show stimulated and encouraged investments even though there was a slight decrease in the number of visitors.

Cooling lubricants are often used to prevent stubborn graphite dust when milling electrodes. This means that it is not necessary to acquire an additional milling machine for graphite machining. Cooling lubricants help to extend tool life and to improve dimensional accuracy.

Like in many other companies, the idea of implementing 3D printing into the production process was first met with scepticism at Pankl Racing System. However, the company was able to save a considerable amount of money in less then a year after buying the first 3D printer.