Large CNC machine tool building

The PTG Group has launched J and S Remanufacture to design and build large machine tools under the Crawford Swift and Binns and Berry as well as offering machine tool remanufacturing.Precision Technologies Group (PTG) has launched 'Jones and Shipman Remanufacture' (J and S Remanufacture) to exploit opportunities in the large capacity machine tool sector J and S Remanufacture will design and build new machines under the 'Crawford Swift' and 'Binns and Berry' brands, in addition to expanding the remanufacturing and machine tool service expertise of the business J and S Remanufacture will be based at the Rosemount Works in Elland, West Yorkshire.The new operation will continue to provide new machines, spares and service activities for its established brands including: Binns and Berry, Crawford Swift, Joshua Heap, and Hepworth Copy systems.These brands will continue to function and develop in their current capacity, as providers of bespoke solutions for large lathes, grinding machines, and special purpose machine tools. PTG adds the recently acquired brands to the current PTG machine tool portfolio that already includes Jones and Shipman and Holroyd.PTG said that the new business will also add valuable re-manufacture facilities and expertise to the group.PTG Group CEO, Mark Franckel said: I am delighted that we have acquired these historic British brands and see enormous benefits in the synergy they create within the group".* About Crawford Swift - throughout its company history Crawford Swift has been committed to developing and manufacturing large machine tools.The company has specialist expertise in the design and manufacture of new lathes, friction stir welding machines, acrylic polishing machines and other special purpose machine tools.In addition to developing its own models, Crawford Swift is renowned for re-engineering, remanufacturing, repairing and servicing machines with a work piece capacity of up to 250 tonnes.A good example of which is providing a world class service re-engineering roll grinders including Churchill, Farrel and Waldrich for the steel industry.* About Binns and Berry - Binns and Berry specialises in the design, manufacture and repair of large capacity CNC lathes for components up to 15 tonnes.Binns and Berry has a novel modular construction technique, which includes a three-/four-guideway bed design that allows the turning of large components in a single pass.Other specialist turning machines include the following.* Sliding gap bed lathes.* Offset/T bed lathes.* Deep-hole boring machines.* Thread whirling machines.Standard and full turnkey systems are available.The company also provides re-engineering, rebuild and retrofit services for medium and heavy duty turning machines.* Jones and Shipman benefits - existing Jones and Shipman customers will also benefit from this acquisition as they will have access to the knowledge and products of Crawford Swift and Binns and Berry.The companies operate from a 38,000ft2 engineering works facility in Elland with one of the largest slideway planing and grinding machines in Europe which can machine 14.5m x 3.3m x 2.2m in a single set-up.The works is serviced by heavy craneage up to 50 tonnes.The setting up of Jones and Shipman Remanufacture means that customers can benefit from Jones and Shipman quality service when looking for expert repairs and solutions for existing large machines.A service is even provided where specialist machines can be sourced from around the world, remanufactured and installed to match the exact needs of the client.• Jones and Shipman Precision: contact details and other news• Email this article to a colleague• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter• Manufacturingtalk Home Page

History of Vending Machines

It’s likely that you’ve probably never taken the time to sit back and consider vending machines. In fact, you have probably never taken the chance to contemplate the history of vending machines. After all who would? I know I didn’t, until I wrote this article and found the history to be surprisingly……well, fascinating. The next time you stop at a vending machine and purchase your favorite sweet, cold soda or that big caramel candy bar you’ll remember that even a vending machine is full of history.What is Vending?Vending is automatic retailing. Basically a vending machine allows someone to sell their products when he or she is not present to supervise the sales. It is really quite an ingenious concept (after all, we all want more money and more time), and doesn’t seem to be a new one either. A certain Greek—a mathematician by profession and interest—whose name was Hero created a vending machine of sorts, which would vend water within Egyptian temples. Many centuries later, vending machines were offered commercially in London. In the 1880s vending sales in London included vending machines that would dispense post cards or books.Vending Machines Take on a Sweeter Flavor in the United States In 1888 vending machines and vending services and sales were offered commercially in the United States as well. The vending machines in the United States were first introduced by the Thomas Adams Gum Company, whose owners were of course interested in taking advantage of vending machines for the sake of selling their gum. The gum’s flavor? Tutti-Fruiti.Additional Vending Machines is the U.S.A.As most retailers do, vending machine retailers and buyers began to realize that just vending gum was not exactly a way to capitalize on the concept of vending. In 1897 the Pulver Manufacturing Company began to vend animated figures in addition to gum in order to increase their sales. Spherical vending machines were also introduced in 1907 complete with lots of candy coated gumballs that could be found inside the sphere. American vending machines also offered cigars, stamps and postcards. A vending machine restaurant was also invented in Pennsylvania in 1902 and managed to stay open until 1962. The restaurant’s name? Horn & Hardart.Music to the Ear: The Juke Box Vending MachineVending machines provided everything from sweets to books but they didn’t produce sound, until the advent of the juke box, which like vending machines had a variety of predecessors. One of the earliest forerunners to the juke box was the nickel-in-the slot machine, which was invented by Louis Glass and Willam S. Arnold in 1889. This machine was actually a phonograph, which would play a recording through sound or listening tubes when a coin was inserted into the apparatus. The tubes soon became a nuisance and juke boxes were invented. Juke boxes allowed listeners to enjoy recordings without tubes and in addition to select from a wider variety of music. Some of the juke boxes, which were commercially available were the Rock-Ola juke boxes (Rockola is a noun, not an adjective), the Seeburg juke boxes, and the Wurlitzer juke boxes.Discount Vending and Vending RepairVending machines soon became a big business in the United States and in other areas around the world as well. New jobs and positions were created in retail vending such as discount vending, vending sales, vending suppliers and vending services. As most inventions do when they help us save time, vending machines made life a little easier for the general population and became a part of the mainstream American lifestyle and culture.

Wheel 2 Wheel Show” marks its 50th radio broadcast at Camp Barnes

On Tuesday July 1st the “Wheel 2 Wheel Show” marked its 50th radio broadcast by attending Camp Barnes in South Bethany. The show was done to raise awareness for the camp and to promote the upcoming Camp Barnes Benefit Stock Car Race that will be held at the Delaware International Speedway on Wednesday July 9th. Camp Barnes has been in operation for 61 years and is open to children between the ages of 10-13 at no cost to the camper or family. The camp accommodates 60 campers per week for 6 weeks and is operated by the Delaware State Police.Several local racers showed up to the show and allowed the campers to get an up close look of their race cars and also gave out autograph cards to the excited group. Local band “Backseat Rhythm” was also on hand to entertain the crowd. The Wheel 2 Wheel Show is hosted by Wade Perdue along with his brother Brandon, Kelly Putz and meteorologist Harlan Williams. It can be heard live every Tuesday night from 8-9pm on 97.5 and 105.9 Cat Country Radio. For more information on the show or if you would like to donate to Camp Barnes you can email them at

The Birth of the Virtual Machine, a Quest for Hybrid CAD

Archimedes, a classical mathematician who died 2,200 years ago, is about to become part of the PLM (product lifecycle management) lexicon.Soon after the ink dried on its acquisition of UGS, Siemens' Automation & Drives (A&D) division began working on a project dubbed Archimedes. Discussing it in the company's internal publication titled Pictures of the Future, publisher Arthur F. Pease wrote, "Siemens' recent acquisition of UGS has given its [A&D] Group ... the tools to merge the real and virtual worlds of production" ("Factories of the Future — UGS and Siemens," Fall 2007). For more on the Archimedes Project, read "Event Report: [2007] UGS Media/Analyst Conference."At Siemens' 2008 media and analyst briefing, which took place in Boston, Massachusetts, in May, Michael Weyrich, leader of new-generation business at Siemens A&D, introduced tangible evidence of Archimedes in operation. By marrying UGS's NX to Siemens' motion-control capabilities, Siemens has developed the Virtual Machine, which connects CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) to CNC (computer numerical control).CNC Behavioral ScienceGenerally, a CAM program simulates the machining operations by animating the machine's movements based on kinematics, the mechanical motions predicted based on physics. However, in the physical world, the CNC operator uses a controller attached to the machine to perform the required tasks."In the Virtual Machine, NX takes into account the unique machine-tool characteristics of the real machine's controller," Weyrich said, "so information like how a machine is configured on a certain shop floor, for example, will be part of the simulation."With Siemens' Virtual Machine, the simulation process is driven not only by kinematics but also by the motion algorithms used by an actual 840D controller. Therefore, it is expected to faithfully depict the cutting conditions, axis movements, collisions, work piece geometry, and motion behaviors of the machine tools equipped with a Siemens 840D control.The virtual machine can physically be found at INDEX, a CNC machine supplier headquartered in Esslingen, Germany. It is now part of what the company delivers to its customers along with the physical hardware.The Virtual Machine, a use-case scenario derived from Siemens' Archimedes Project, produces accurate simulation of machining operations by incorporating the controller's algorithm.E4DFWolfgang Schloegl, Siemens' digital factory team leader, followed Weyrich's virtual machine presentation with another that focused on the virtual factory, or E4DF (engineering for digital factory). In his view, the major shortcomings in today's engineering are:* unsynchronized processes* redundant data entry, processing, and storage* insufficient validation of engineering resultsHis recommendation? Use Siemens' SIMATIC Automation Designer software along with Teamcenter as the data backbone. In its online literature promoting SIMATIC's openness as an advantage, Siemens states, "The previously separate worlds of mechanical components, electrical systems, and automation are now represented transparently in one plant structure. This guarantees data consistency. The result is that existing software tools can easily be used again and combined with SIMATIC Automation Designer."With SIMATIC, CAD diagrams form the basis for plant layout. Once read into SIMATIC, they become the touchstones for configuring the production process. "The product has been field-tested for 1.5 years," said Schloegl. "It's now ready in a way that we can sell it."By the end of this month, SIMATIC 3.0 should be available, along with E-CAD Extension Packages for automatically generating and integrating circuitry design. Schloegl revealed that SIMATIC will begin using JT, a lightweight file format developed by UGS, for visualization of factory components in 2009.Live Rules Overrule Feature HistorySynchronous Technology, Siemens' answer for combining freeform and parametric modeling, had been in incubation in a development lab at UGS before the acquisition. "When Siemens found out we had been working on this, they were delighted," said Chuck Grindstaff, Siemens' executive vice-president of products. With Siemens' contribution to the R&D budget, Synchronous Technology swiftly made its debut last month (for more information, read "Siemens Breaks Free from History".In the first quarter of 2008, three history-based CAD vendors — Dassault, PTC, and Siemens — unveiled their own solutions that allow CAD users to employ a mix of modeling approaches. In February, PTC introduced a new version of Pro/ENGINEER that incorporates certain freeform-modeling features from CoCreate (acquired by PTC in October 2007). In April, Dassault previewed CATIA Live Shape, a freeform-modeling module for CATIA users.Evan Yares, a CAD industry veteran in attendance at the Siemens event, said that what CAD vendors are pitching as freeform modeling may be described more accurately as "feature-imprint modeling."Unlike the freeform-modeling methods found in software programs widely used by animation artists and game developers (such as Autodesk 3d Studio Max or Maya), the method now making its way into CAD packages relies on the recognizable topology of mechanical features (holes, tubes, and shafts) and makes every effort to retain the surface and geometric relationships. Therefore, Yares argued, the deformation is based on the existing imprint of a feature.Synchronous Technology relies on Live Rules, a set of algorithms for detecting and recognizing standard mechanical features, to let the software intelligently reshape the affected geometry in response to a user's pushes, pulls, and dimension-driven changes. Live Rules can be disabled when a user wants to make an unorthodox change that might break the generally accepted associativities and constraints in a feature. Conversely, users also have the option to place locked constraints (or parameters) on a model.In the demonstration, Dan Staples, director of Solid Edge product development, demonstrated how one can use Synchronous Technology to edit a Solid Edge assembly containing a SolidWorks part and an Inventor part. The new releases of NX and Solid Edge (dubbed Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology, or SEST for short) both feature Synchronous Technology.Siemens promotes upcoming releases of NX and Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology as CAD tools with the potential to offer dramatically higher productivity in multi-CAD environments.Other HighlightsNX 6 features Product Template Studio, a way to publish a simplified parametric model from a complex part as input. The tool is designed to let users automatically generate a brand new part based on an existing one through guided input fields, bypassing the need to directly interact with the geometry.With NX 6, using the mix-mesh approach, a user can prepare a mesh model for analysis with different mesh densities for different regions. The tool is particularly useful when dealing with products with a mix of simple and complex curvatures or a combination of thick and thin surfaces.Throughout the last several years, digital prototyping has become the new mantra for CAD and PLM vendors. It's an ambitious vision, wherein everything taking place on the factory floor — from the tilt of an automatic drilling arm to the posture of an assembly worker — is simulated with digital replicas first. Siemens' progress report on the Archimedes Project proves that having a hardware giant for a parent company can be an advantage.