Pressure down

In conventional laser beam welding, the escaping metal vapor sometimes hits the molten layer at the capillary rear wall and causes weld spatter. Solid state lasers (SSLs) have a far greater tendency to generate spatter than CO2 lasers in this process - and this tendency becomes more pronounced with increasing weld depth and feed rates.

SolidWorks Ken Clayton on customer, competition and future

International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) spoke to Ken Clayton, vice president for worldwide sales at Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. (DS SolidWorks), during the SolidWorks World in San Diego, California. Ken leads the sales strategy and execution efforts of the DS Professional Channel. With more than 300 fulltime employees and 335 resellers, the DS Professional Channel has evolved from selling a single product to a complete family of solutions, and also includes other Dassault Systèmes

Advances in laser calibration system

Design better with simulation software

Today, more and more engineers in Asia are starting to use simulation to improve design quality. International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) spoke to Go Say Tiam, vice president, Velocity Series, Asia Pacific about Siemens PLM Software's latest Solid Edge? software ST5 (Solid Edge ST5), with advances in core design capabilities aimed at helping users develop better products faster.

Improve your machine tool performance

Ways to maintain your clamping vices

Vises used for workpiece clamping in Asia's production environments are exposed to extreme conditions. This significantly influences the precision of the workpiece, process stability, and safety for both operator and machine. In order to ensure optimum clamping force, users normally follow the manufacturer's information on lubrication intervals. Moreover, many more companies are choosing preventive maintenance programs, where the clamping vise is thoroughly tested in defined cycles. This ensures

Five-axis machining secrets

For years, 5-axis machinery has been misunderstood, even feared. And it's not for everyone. Yet 5-axis CNC machining can help users in Asia realise increased profits and quality immediately. The old fears about complicated programming, crashes and collisions and cost are unfounded. In fact, in today's competitive marketplace, machine tool operations can't afford to bypass opportunistic business that comes with the flexibility of 5-axis machine tools like those from Okuma and other manufacturers.

Interroll Thailand: Manufacturing logistical solutions

When one think of manufacturing, most would think of the finished product rather than the manufacturing process. Unless you have had some experience working as part of supply chain operations, it's easy to forget about all of the logistical requirements involved in getting a product from its raw material state to it eventual destination. A company who exhibited recently at MTA 2012 in HCMC Vietnam is a business that was built on developing solutions and manufacturing equipment that caters to all

Global bearings demand to rise 8% through 2016

Worldwide demand for bearings is expected to increase 8% per year to US$95 billion in 2016, according to Reportlinker. Uncounted ball and roller bearings will make up three quarters of total sales in 2016, with the market for these products reaching US$71 billion. Global sales of uncounted plain bearings will rise to US$11 billion in 2016, while aggregate demand for mounted bearings, bearing parts and combination type bearings will be US$13 billion in the same year.

Global service robotics market valued at US20.73B

The global service robotics market in 2011 was worth US$18.39 billion, according to Research and Markets. This market is valued at US$20.73 billion in 2012 and expected to reach US$46.18 billion by 2017 at an estimated CAGR of 17.4% from 2012 to 2017.

Slight increase in global steel production

Liangjiang new area witnesses boost in exports