Motto of the Month
President's Corner
"IMTS Is Coming... Make Your Plans Now To Be In Chicago"
Every even year in September, I always know where I'm going to be. That's the decades-old schedule for IMTS. For those of us with long memories (or just plain-old long careers), the show is only half as long as it once was. This year, IMTS will be held from September 13-18, a Monday through Saturday event at the new and improved McCormick Place.
TCI and our sister company, E-Z Lok Threaded Inserts, will be exhibiting like we have since the 60s. Imagine. Forty-plus years of participating in the largest and most comprehensive manufacturing show in the country. And for the 5th consecutive show, we'll be exhibiting alongside our friends and business "partners", Boston Centerless. As I mentioned in my May blog, our two companies complement each other in an industry that is often segmented into different metalworking disciplines.
While TCI specializes in flat, rectangular and square Precision Machine-Ready Blanks, ready for final machining, Boston Centerless specializes in supplying precision ground bar to extremely close tolerances, ready for finish machining for the CNC Swiss screw machining industry and other precision machining applications.
Now, I realize that we're all coming out of what we hope was the worst manufacturing recession that we'll witness in our careers and that it may be difficult for many to justify the investment in being in Chicago and away from the shop. For many, it took a lot of courage in terms of making decisions that we never thought we'd have to make. But we were also creative with resources and re-learned some of the lessons from the last recession. Attending IMTS is the next serious opportunity to get repositioned to leverage what we learned in the recession with new technologies and innovations to get a head start on the next up-cycle.
Come by to visit us in the West Hall at booths W-1267 and W-1271.
Oh. Did I mention that the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) will be at IMTS? Drop by in the same West Hall at W-1671 (you knew I had to fit NTMA in somehow).
Consider the cost of attending the show - and then consider the opportunity cost of staying home. I think the obvious choice is to get off the porch.
See you on the floor in Chicago...
-John Belzer
This Month's Featured Process - Turning
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Unlike conventional turning, which usually requires two operations per blank, TCIís turning economically produces close tolerance rings and circles in a single operation. Precision turning reduces ring and circle premachining costs up to 50% and provides dimensional tolerances to ±.001", concentricity within .001", and surface finishes to 32 Ra. TCI vacuum chucks blanks into position for turning. As the chuck rotates, the tool plunges into the blank and creates a complete, close tolerance ring or circle in up to half the time of conventional methods. Plus, part-to-part consistency is significantly improved and the number of operations and set-ups is reduced. |