After seeing the success of the first Cool Idea! Award program, Proto Labs, the world’s fastest manufacturer of CNC machined and injection-molded parts, has announced the expansion of its program to include the European Union in 2012. The Cool Idea! Award, which launched in the United States last year, gives product designers the opportunity to bring innovative product ideas to life. In addition to the expansion, Proto Labs has also increased the award amount from $100,000 to $250,000 worth (…)

Micronarc Alpine Meeting (mAm 2012) – Equipment for Microproducts. 3rd Edition. January 22-25, 2012, Villars-sur-Ollon. In order to benefit from a reduced price, you should register on or before January 13, 2012. Following in the success of the first two editions, The Micronarc Alpine Meeting 2012 will continue its focus on equipment for manufacturing microproducts. The MAM 2012 programis now on-line. 4 reasons why you should not miss mAm 2012 Excellent speakers and program Single (…)

Following in the success of the first two editions, The Micronarc Alpine Meeting 2012 will continue its focus on equipment for manufacturing microproducts. From January 22 to 25, 2012, Villars-sur-Ollon. This 2.5 day conference intends to stimulate networking and discussions in the casual atmosphere of Villars, a charming village and ski resort located at 1250 meters of altitude. A selection of invited speakers and presentations will comprise the program. A small, table-top exhibition (…)

In the area of consumer electronics, multi-touch has not only changed the ergonomics of devices, it has changed user habits as well. In industrial automation, this technology has the potential to make machine operation more intuitive, faster and safer - in essence, to bring about a revolution in ergonomics for machine and system visualization units. B&R introduces devices that allow multi-touch input in industrial environments. In industrial automation, there has been a strong and (…)

It’s been a while since we spoke about coating here and I’ve a good news to people interested in this topic. we met Christian Manasterski, head of R&D of the Surfaces Synergie group, leader in this technology and we will publish a two-episode story in Eurotec. First episode in our December issue! Example of black PVD coating use in the watch industry with the Louis Chevrolet Frontenac 7500 and its steel case black PVD coated and polished. Black coatings are for some years, very (…)

Active for more than 30 years in polymer micro-precision, Biwi SA is a Jura company renowned in the fields of watchmaking, medical and microtechnology. Its expertise includes molding, casting and technical polymer injection technology. Met in Orthotec, the representatives of the company presented us their new family of Isochron high performance joints. The joint is a strategic component for many watchmaking or technical products; it can be simple in appearance, but requires exceptional (…)

Time will tell, but increasingly, there is evidence that points to the fact that bar-fed mills could well represent the future of complex, small parts manufacturing. To see this coming paradigm shift, one need only walk the halls of the latest EMO, where a number of major machine tool manufacturers displayed their own, unique offerings of bar-fed milling machines. Much as the rise in popularity of multitasking, turn-mill centers and Swiss-type lathes made thousands of manufacturers (…)

Whether a manufacturing company specialises in producing nuts and bolts, complex gear sets or high precision valves, keeping its equipment running efficiently is the key to profitability. Lubrication plays an integral role in reducing friction between critical rotating or moving machine tool components, which can translate into equipment durability and availability. To help ensure that the machine tool runs smoothly, it is important to choose a combination of high-quality lubricants – (…)

Delcam has launched the 2012 version of its PowerMILL CAM system for high-speed and five-axis machining. The new release includes a number of new strategies, together with more general enhancements to make programming faster and machining more efficient with the best-possible surface finish. Full details, including videos demonstrating the new functionality, can be seen on www.delcam.tv/pm2012/lz. The most important new option is flowline machining. With flowline machining, the toolpath is (…)

CGTech will feature the latest release of Vericut CNC machine simulation and optimisation software on stand J10 in Hall 25 at EMO 2011 in Hannover, Germany. Vericut 7.1 features significant enhancements to reduce the time required for manufacturing engineers to easily develop, analyze, inspect and document the CNC programming and machining process. Along with proactively adding new features, CGTech developers and engineers focused on addressing hundreds of customer-driven enhancements. (…)