Apple recently released their new MacBook notebook computers. The company put out an excellent video which spends a great deal of time discussing the machining of the computer’s unique one piece design composed of aluminum. Apple set out to create the lightest, thinnest, most robust and sexy notebook of its kind. Aluminum was chosen as the material because it has a great strength to weight ratio and potential for a high quality finish. The video shows the extensive precision machining involved in the computer’s production, from the extrusion process to produce single blocks of aluminum through the 13 separate milling…
Author: Noah Graff
Eighty-year-old, billionaire, oil baron T. Boone Pickens believes that America’s oil era is over. He is now going full speed into the alternative energy business, building filling stations for CNG cars around the U.S. and spending $2 billion out of what he hopes will be $10 billion to build an enormous wind farm. This is the beginning of his “Pickens Plan,” the goal of which is to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil by 30 percent within 10 years. The plan will require $500 billion more in private investment and $150 billion in government subsidies. He wants the next…
By Noah Graff A recent article in Modern Machine Shop discussed the dilemma of using video cameras to monitor the daily activities of employees. In their research they found that managers and employees are divided on whether cameras are necessary in a plant. Some people felt that managers shouldn’t need cameras if the employees are valued and trusted, other people argued that employees shouldn’t mind the cameras if they are working as they should.I’d be very interested to see a study on whether the introduction of cameras in plants boosts productivity or hurts it. Monitoring with cameras could be a…
By Noah Graff A recent article by wired.com suggested that one of the best remedies for the struggling U.S. economy would be an extensive overhaul of the country’s crumbling infrastructure. Obama and McCain talk a lot about alternative energy, electric cars and high speed trains but those aspirations will take a great deal of time to come to fruition (assuming they do), and would be not be worth much if the roads, bridges, drinking water, and transit systems are a shambles.A report card issued three years ago by the American Society of Civil Engineers gives those things listed above a…
By Lloyd Graff I think we got an important signal Tuesday when Bank of America decided not to raise credit lines for McDonalds franchisees to buy new equipment such as coffee machines. They’re keeping credit lines as they are – that doesn’t mean they’re cutting them, it just means they’re not raising them as a general policy. This is important because it shows that the Wall Street mess is starting to filter down to the lending habits of major banks. I think this is going to affect industrial equipment purchases because it affects the money available to borrow. It’s going…
Today’s Machining World has produced a video that will give you insider tips on using public transportation to get from O’Hare airport to downtown Chicago and then from downtown to IMTS at McCormick Place. There are also recommendations on some great restaurants close to the show.
August 21, Chicago’s NPR station ran a short blurb about how manufacturing’s seemingly continuous slowdown has caused many shops to let go of workers in recent months. Hearing stories like this over and over supports the notion that one of the difficulties in urging a young generation workforce to enter the manufacturing industry is not only caused by manufacturing’s image as dirty, monotonous and underpaid, but also by the general news being presented to the public everyday. Who would want to commit one’s life to jobs that are portrayed as traditionally difficult and also declining? Most people make little effort…
Dartmouth economics professor Andrew Bernard has come up with a mathematical system to predict the medal standings of the Olympics. He has tested his formula on the Olympic games dating back to 1960, and claims it has an accuracy of 96 percent.In the formula he equates athletes to complex machines. You need materials to build the machines, which are people, meaning countries with large populations have an edge. Then you need resources, which is a country’s income, to the produce the people into great athletes. The “machines” last a while, so past results are another factor. The final factor is…
Just days after Toyota said their U.S. sales dropped 18.7 percent, Toyota is cutting 800 jobs at a unit making Lexus vehicles. It’s the first time Toyota has let go of contract workers before their contracts are up. This is yet another indicator of a sliding U.S. auto market, as Toyota has historically grown during previous recessions. In the following video John Casesa, Managing Partner of Casesa Shapiro Group, elaborates more on the future of the U.S. auto industry. He discusses automakers shifting production from SUVs and trucks to that of smaller fuel efficient cars, the changes in American car…
At Hurco’s open house July 25, 2008, the Today’s Machining World staff interviewed Hurco technical supervisor Paul Gray, who demonstrated how to a use a VMX42SR vertical machining center to create this bust of a head.