Journal of the Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association

cover | IMTS 2010
distributors in our region
Stone Machinery, Inc.
Saint Paul, Minn.
Tom Drazkowski, owner/president
www.stonemachinery.com
Stone Machinery, Inc. is a niche
machinery supplier/distributor with a
broad CNC product line. We focus on
products that fit a particular niche for
our customers, focusing on automation,
part complexity and output.
Stone Machinery is the longest running
distributor in Minnesota. We work with the
very short-run manufacturers as well as the
very high production customers.
For the short-run manufacturers we
represent Hurco and Southwest Industries.
Hurco: The hottest new product in
machine controls is Hurco’s new WinMax
8. The control software accesses the
Internet for off-site monitoring capability.
Hurco also provides controls that are ready
to run 5-axis standard on all machines.
A definite must-see at the Hurco booth.
The SR machines have a tilt head, allowing
shorter tool capability. Hurco lathes are
now 8-axis capable.
Southwest Industries: The ProtoTrak line
is a toolroom equipment line, known for
its easy to program machinery.
For the large production equipment,
we represent Absolute Machine Tools,
Chevalier, and ZPS.
Absolute Machine Tools: Absolute
will have 14 machines on-site, all large
envelope machines and all worth seeing.
Worthy of special mention are:
▶▶
Johnford: Manufacturer of very large
machines. Last year we installed the
largest lathe ever sold in Midwest, a 30’
machine, producing long cylinders.
▶▶
YouJi: Will have a 2000 mm VTL on
display, and a 1500 mm HMC.
▶▶
Tong Tai: They have begun branding
their own machines, known as the
Hitachi-Seiki supplier/builder.
ZPS: This European manufacturer will
display 6 and 8 spindle CNC multispindle
machines.
Chevalier: Known for its production
grinding, Stone installed two automated
CNC Chevalier grinding machines
into Kurt Manufacturing’s new facility.
The robot-loaded machines feature full
interactive gaging and an auto clamp, three
zone pallet system.
T. Bryce & Associates Inc.
Plymouth, Minn.
Terry Bryce, owner/president
www.tbryce.com
Electrical discharge machining is a small
slice of the pie in the machine tool
business but it’s critical in toolmaking
and many other types of high precision,
unusual problem-solving projects.
EDM is a machining method
primarily used for hard metals or those
that would be very difficult to machine
with traditional techniques. EDM can
cut intricate contours or cavities in these
materials—its precision is extraordinary.
Fanuc: This year Fanuc’s wire EDMs
are a little bigger and faster in terms of
automatic threading, cutting and ease
of operation. The main feature of our
equipment, overall, is reliability. Because
I’ve been doing this for over 30 years now,
I know that reliability is critical—in any
machine, really. You can’t afford to have
back-up machinery anymore. The price
competitiveness factor no longer will
permit that paradigm.
Current EDM: We also handle Current
small hole drilling machines. These
machines can drill holes to less than
a diameter of a human hair and up to
3/8” diameter in hardened or carbide
materials. Current is sophisticated,
accurate and reliable.
This year at IMTS, learning more
about cloud computing is at the top of
my list. Cloud computing simply means
using remote, large Internet server farms
to host and manage the programs that
are assessed on site simply through, say, a
manufacturing dashboard. MTConnect,
for example, can be connected to the
cloud where detailed analytics could
be run simply from a browser. This is
very exciting and has the potential to
revolutionize manufacturing. PM
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning
II Joint Strike Fighter to be
Showcased at IMTS
Lockheed Martin has agreed to exhibit
a full-scale model of its F-35 Lightning
II Joint Strike Fighter during IMTS.
The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th
generation fighter, combining
advanced stealth with fighter
speed and agility, fully fused sensor
information, network-enabled
operations, advanced sustainment,
and lower operational and support
costs. Lockheed Martin is developing
the F-35 with its principal industrial
partners, Northrop Grumman
and BAE Systems. Two separate,
interchangeable F-35 engines are
under development: the Pratt &
Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce
Fighter Engine Team F136.
“While the manufacturing technology
featured at IMTS stands alone as a
must-see, what’s really exciting is
seeing the end result from some of
those machines,” says John Krisko,
IMTS director -exhibitions. “Everyone
at the show will have the opportunity
to learn about the plane’s construction
and the manufacturing technology
behind it. We are thrilled to have this
amazing example of an end product
featured at IMTS.” GIE Media was
instrumental in working with IMTS to
secure the fighter for exhibit.
The F-35 is intended to be the world’s
premiere strike aircraft through 2040.
The United States intends to buy a
total of 2,443 aircraft with a total of
more than 4,000 F-35s forecast to
be built for the United States and
foreign customers combined. The F-35
program’s overall value is estimated
at $323 billion, making it the largest
defense program ever.
The F35 will be on display in the front
of McCormick Place’s West Building in
Booth W-100.
Source: www.imts.com
14 | PRECISION MANUFACTURING July | August 2010