Automated Machine Tending is No Longer an Option. Time to Hire a Robot! Given the ongoing shortage of skilled labor, shops everywhere are turning to automated machine tending. Doing so reduces operating costs. It increases overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), often significantly. Automation also opens the door to unattended second and third shifts, potentially allowing the company [...]
Anyone who's watched an expensive carbide drill go up in smoke knows the importance of cutting fluids. And yet, the challenge is getting these fluids where they're needed most: in the work zone. That's where through-spindle coolant comes in. A common option on some brands of CNC machining center, "coolant-thru" increases tool life, productivity, and part [...]
Let’s pretend you just bought a KVR-series machining center from Kent USA. Furthermore, your shop cuts tons of aluminum, so you opted for the 20,000 rpm high-speed spindle option. Great idea. What’s not so great is overlooking the need for toolholder balancing at these speeds. That’s because an unbalanced toolholder will not only shorten tool life, it might just [...]
Best of Both Worlds – Horizontal and Vertical Trying to decide between a vertical or horizontal machining center? This Southern California job shop ordered the combo Vertical machining center (VMC) proponents say it’s the flexibility and lower cost that brought them to purchase this most common of CNC machine tools. Those who favor a horizontal machining [...]
Vertical Milling Upgrade for High-Power Manufacturing Northeastern United States manufacturing company gets a machine tool upgrade from Kent USA Unless you’re a scientist or microwave engineer, you could probably care less about waveguides. In fact, most people would have a hard time describing one. Despite their esoteric nature, however, waveguides are both more important and [...]
Vertical Machining Centers: Two Important Options to Look For When Buying Walk into almost any machine shop and you’re sure to see a line of vertical machining centers (VMCs). You'll probably find that all of them have similar travels, similar controls, and similar features, regardless of the machine logo or paint color. Does that mean, then, [...]
5 Years and Millions of Parts with the KVR Machining Center Millions of parts later, the management team at this manufacturing company remain quite happy with their machine tool decision Being a Tier III supplier to automotive and appliance OEMs is high-volume, extremely competitive work, where success depends in large part on fast, accurate, and [...]
A Productive Journey Wisconsin job shop expands its small part capabilities with a new CNC machining center from Kent USA Every shop faces the same situation at one point or another. The machine tools are either too large and slow to be competitive on smaller parts, or too small and underpowered for the larger ones. [...]
Traveling Column Machines: Three Ways Additional Travel Improves Productivity I’ve always been intrigued by traveling column machines. That's because a vertical machining center able to mill both ends of a sleeper sofa or carry parts that weigh more than the recently-resurrected Ford Ranger (there’s a yellow 2003 in my driveway) raises a lot of possibilities. This [...]
Four Things Job Shops Should Know When Searching for the Best Vertical Machining Center VMCs are the workhorses of any job shop. They’re able to machine a huge variety of parts. The tooling is widely available, as are machine operators. VMCs are also less expensive than a comparably-sized horizontal or five-axis machining center. Finding the best [...]
