Scroll down below the blog to listen to the podcast interview with Esben Østergaard. Today’s Swarfcast is an interview Noah and I recently conducted with Esben Østergaard, founder and chief technology officer of Universal Robots, a Danish firm that sold out in 2015 to automation conglomerate Teradyne for $285 million. Esben started the company on a shoestring with his partners in 2005. They struggled to build a viable prototype and then luckily found an investor who believed in their idea of a compact, inexpensive robot that was easily programmed by factory floor workers. The robot was intended to be used as…
Author: Noah Graff
Listen to the podcast with the player below. In today’s podcast Lloyd Graff and his son Noah delve into their family used machine tool biz… er treasure hunting business. They discuss how Noah came to work at Today’s Machining World and Graff-Pinkert, what it’s like working together and basic alchemy. Question: Would you like being in business with a family member?
Miles Free, Director of Research and Technology at the Precision Machined Products Association, opines on electric cars, economic patriotism and how American machine shops have evolved to thrive in today’s economy. Question: Are tariffs aimed at China economic patriotism or a tool for the enemy? Listen to Swarfcast in the player below.
I often ask clients of our machine tool business where they make the most money in their businesses. They usually have an answer immediately, and it isn’t in the place where they are investing fresh money. I’m frequently talking to folks who run multi-spindle automatic screw machines, usually cam-operated, in tandem with a host of other equipment. Many people regard these machines as antiques from the antediluvian epoch of manufacturing. These are machines that some folks say won World War II. For the uninitiated, that was the war in which we fought the Germans and Japanese, while the Russians were…
Listen to Swarfcast in the player below. In Episode #2 of Swarfcast, Today’s Machining World’s podcast, Noah interviewed Miles Free of the PMPA (Precision Machined Products Association). Free is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the steel trade. They discussed how the recently implemented tariffs on raw materials into the United States affect the U.S. precision machining industry. In the interview Free equated harsh raw material tariffs to economic sanctions on imports that the United States would inflict on an enemy like Russia or Iran. If you want to learn about Trump’s new tariffs listen to this interview! This…
Listen to Swarfcast in the player below. At long last, Swarfcast, Today’s Machining World’s podcast, is up! Swarfcast centers around similar topics that readers have enjoyed in Today’s Machining World during its first 18 years. Wow, that’s awhile. Each week, Lloyd and Noah Graff will interview colorful people who will give their take on the machining business and a whole array of topics that we think our readers (and now listeners) may find interesting. In the first episode, Noah interviews Lloyd (his dad). Lloyd reflects on the last 60-some years of his life—as a 12-year-old kid submitting articles to Readers…
Two weeks ago at the Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA) Tech Conference I interviewed Miles Free, the association’s Director of Industry Research and Technology. He’s a guru of machining industry world politics and one of the world’s foremost experts on the steel trade. In March when President Trump tweeted his intentions to implement a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum coming into the United States, Free was bombarded from news outlets around the globe for his analysis—he really knows his steel. I came into the interview knowing very little about global steel trade, so it was…
Lloyd and Noah Graff are on vacation this week. Here is a favorite Swarfblog from July 10, 2015. Americans on average spend 7.4 hours staring at a screen of some kind every day, according to Kleiner Perkins analyst Mary Meeker. That breaks down to 147 minutes watching TV, 103 minutes in front of a computer, 151 minutes in front of a smart phone and 43 minutes in front of a tablet. The U.S. is ranked 6th in world in screen time consumption—Indonesia and the Philippines are at the top of the list. I’m sure I spend at least an average…
Soon I’ll be 38 years old. I often question whether I have used my time wisely so far to reach a daily happy existence and positively impact the world. At this time of year I dwell on the past 12 months and I regret all the times I was lazy. I wish I had not been scared to try new things. I wish I had not burned so much time and energy obsessing over trivial things. But before I get down on myself too much and before I set my goals for next year I feel it is important for…
For the last 10 years my general sleep pattern usually consisted of going to bed sometime between 12:00 A.M. and 1:00 A.M (sometimes later) and waking sometime between 7:45 and 8:00 A.M. When I awoke usually the first thing I’d do was grab my cellphone to check emails and text messages in bed. I get a lot of emails from international customers and I was interested to see what opportunities were percolating worldwide. Then I would roll out of bed and do my bathroom stuff (often skipping the shower to save time). I’d throw on some clothes, skip breakfast (I…