|
CNC West News Features | |
|
Decenber 2001 • January 2002 • Vol. XX No. 2 • An Arnold Publication | |
|
The
BIG News- Lockheed Wins $200 Billion Contract for 3000 Supersonic
Jets, Many Subcontractors Will Benefit Over 20 Years DOD chose
Lockheed-Martin's design for the new Joint Strike Fighter for Air
Force, Navy and Marines plus the British air force and navy. Boeing
lost out but could be a subcontractor along with Northrop Gruman,
BAE Systems of Britain and Raytheon, plus Pratt & Whitney for
jet engines worth $4 billion over 9 years, $50 billion over 30 years
starting in 2007. Western
aerospace vendors will benefit with subcontracts. Northrop will add
1600 employees the first year, 1200 in El Segundo, CA. for design
and assembly of the center fuselage. Moog Aircraft Group in
Torrance, CA. may benefit for its mechanical systems. Its one of
dozens of So. Calif firms getting a share of the $100 billion in
subcontract work to flow into the region. TRW's San Diego operation
expects $5 billion in decades to come. The program
will pump $30-$40 billion into Northrop's Air Combat Systems
operation between now and 2040. Northrop will use four major machine
shops locally including Brek Manufacturing, Gardena and Arden
Engineering of Orange. Assembly will occur in Palmdale while
Lockheed will do assembly in Ft. Worth, Tx. The initial phases of
production last until 2012. Shipbuilder
Northrop Wins OK for $2.1 Billion Newport News Takeover Newport
News shipbuilding agreed to the $2.1 billion takeover by Northrop
Grumman. The merger creates a work force of 97,000 and adds a third
shipbuilder to its roster involving 17,800 workers. It owns yards in
Louisiana and Mississippi that make Navy ships. Its bid won over
General Dynamics deal
and had Pentagon approval. And the present war footing means
business for Northrop's Global Hawk unmanned aircraft which could
mean 60 for the Air Force. Also, there's hope more B-2's could be
built, 21 of which were made between '93 and 2000. Co.
has a new president also, Ronald Sugar, former chief of both TRW and
Litton. Newport News has sales of $2 billion and backlog of $8
billion, good for 5-7 years. Northrop also has these acquisitions
under its wings besides Litton. It bought Grumman, Logicon, Ryan
Aeronautical. The
F-35 will boost California subs. It's home to 13 of the 67 major
subs for Lockheed and many will also farm out some work. Major
production won't begin for 10 years. Others ready to benefit include
Paramount Machine, Rancho Cucamonga, Parker Aerospace, Irvine, and
Eaton Aerospace, also Irvine. Companies expect work to generate $5
billion each over the course of the project. Kavlico, Moorpark,
makes position sensors, part of plane's hydraulics. Some expect
overall work to benefit at least 200 companies. One expert figures
that for every 100 jobs first-tier subs will spawn 600 to 1000 more
at machine shops. Small
Cerritos Firm Seeks Marine Award Flyer
Technologies of Cerritos, CA. is expanding its dune buggy sights to
a light strike vehicle for the Marine Corps called the Flyer 21
(ITV-LVS). It has a range of 450 miles, speed to 75 mph, has turbo
intercooled diesel, seats 1 to 6. If contract is
won vehicles would be made in El Segundo, returning auto making to
So, Cal for first time since GM closed is Van Nuys Chevy plant in
1992. Initial contract would call for 2700 vehicles worth about $250
million.. Mergers &
Acquisitions...Buy & Sell Remains Strong IBM has
acquired Burlingame, CA- based Crossworlds, pioneer-application
integration software company, for $129 million. CrossWorld's product
allow businesses to integrate disparate software applications...
GenCorp, maker of aerospace products and chemicals, has regained
ownership of Aerojet Fine Chemicals from NextPharma Technologies.
Sacramento-based Aerojet gets the 40% ownership returns to GenCorp
which gets back the 40% of Aerojet it didn't already own.. Kodak has
bought Encad, maker of wide format inkjet printers for $25 milllon.
Encad is based in San Diego, Ca. Sales of these printers amount to
about $2.4 billion a year, increasing by 15% annually... Motorola
agreed to buy Synchronous of San Jose, CA. for $260 million in
stock. The company, founded in 1980, makes fiber-optic equipment
that boosts capacity of cable systems.
Jupiter Networks paid $200 million in stock for Pacific
Eroadband Communication of San Jose, CA. whose products are
cable-modem termination systems. Juniper say the market is now $500
million year and will grow to $9 billion in 2005.... Applied
Materials, Santa Clara, CA. has purchased Schlumberger of France's
electron-beam water-inspection business for detecting microscopic
defects that ruin expensive silicon wafers. Female-Owned
Firms Grow at Fast Pace, Women-owned
businesses have grown 14.3% in Calif. compared to 7% nationally
since 1977, more than four times. 1.6 growth rate of all local
private businesses. Sales rose 61.5% vs. 40.4% nationwide. Portland,
OR leads in number of women owned businesses with 35%, St. Louis is
second with 33%, San Francisco has 60,601 female-run businesses
employing 97,927 people generating $22.5 billion in sales. Oakland
has 59,794 such firms with 92,866 workers generating $16.1 billion. Despite
Commercial Cutbacks a New Diversified Boeing Thrives as Both Prime
and Sub Contractor Boeing is well
positioned to gain military spending, deriving about 40% of sales
from defense and space business, airplane's share down to 60%. Says
Chairman Phil Condit, "its been gratifying to see that our
strategies were robust". The $51 billion firm now headquartered
in Chicago has set up three
distinct businesses that operated as such. Boeing may close its 717
jet line in Long Beach but continue 777 output in Seattle. It has
orders for 127, 82 delivered and may deliver 522 airliners this year
but only 350-400 in 2002. Its Delta 4 rocket is set for launch in
April. So space, communications and missile products are the new
focus with ballistic missile defense program, satellites, missile
and air traffic management. It will develop
a fuel cell powered single engine plane that could eventually
replace gas turbine auxiliary power units. Chipmakers
Rebound in Sales, Prices, Leaders in
semiconductor field have aggressive 15-year plan leading to smaller
and faster circuits and computers. By 2013 chipmakers will make
circuits of only 32 nanometers and by 2016, get down to 22, less
thank one two hundredth thickness of single red blood cell.
Ananometer is one billionth of a meter. Today chips are based on
180-nanometer technology. Intel has moved into 130 devices. Intel's
transistor design, the Terahertz, can switch off 1-trillion times a
second.... Chip sales expected to climb 6% next year to $150
billion, $218 billion by 2004... And Genecor of Palo Alto, CA. and
Dow Corning plan to build biological machines on slivers of silicon.
Both firms are teaming up to build biochips. LATE
NEWS at Presstime After a decade of consolidation the Los Angeles defense industry is poised to grow again. Aircraft & Parts has $4 billion output last year with 52,000 workers, ship & boat build did $37.5 million while guided misiles, space vehicles did $145 million... Apple Computer has unveiled a $399 portable music player device the size of a card deck as it ventures beyond the world of personal computers....Sunnyvale' Cepheld biotech firm has developed the portable smart Cydler to identify anthrax, smallpox and other deadly pathogens. Company is also developing device called GeneXpert to simplify DNA ID's by handling all 3 types of process in a single machine... The Nummi plant in Fremont, CA. (GM & Toyota) will make a fourth vehicle in 2002, the 2003 Toyota Voltz to be sold in Japan, a right-hand drive version of the Pontiac Vibe sports-wagon for U.S. starting in Feb./Mar. GM hopes to sell 40-50,000 Vibes in 2002, 60-75,000 in 2003, Nummi now makes Toyota Tacoma pickup, Corolla sedan and Chevrolet Prizm sedan... Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA. based chip equipment maker, landed a $200 million order from a Shanghai semiconductor company. Its for Grace semiconductor, building a $1,5 billion chip plant in Shanghai... Federal Reserve reports high tech's economic clout is two times greater in western U.S. than rest of nation. High tech paychecks cover 14.6% of non-farm wages in 9 western states compared to only 7.5% in rest of nation. Its 17% in Calif. and 16% in Washington state...Superior industries, Van Nuys, CA. wheelmaker for cars, wins contract with Daimler-Chrysler in Germany for aluminum wheels for 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser..Howmet Aluminum of City of Industry is closing its plant that sells aircraft parts to Boeing. Co. is subsidiary of Alcoa, Darien, CT. | |
|
Daewoo Expands West Coast Sales and Service
In
a move designed to expand its customer service capabilities, Daewoo
has opened a modern 3,800 sq. ft. office and showroom for its
western region in Sante Fe Springs, CA.
Sharing space with Daewoo at this location is its southern
California distributor, Protek Machinery. Protek is headquartered in
Simi Valley Ca. along with their tech center. The
new facility houses the company’s west coast showroom, and will
provide sales, service, demo and training that comprise Daewoo’s
West Coast Region. The
combined staff consists of eleven administrative, sales, programming
and service professionals. Representative selections of Daewoo
turning and machining centers are available for demonstration.
Replacement parts inventory are available at both tech
centers. Daewoo is one of the world’s foremost builders of powerful horizontal and vertical turning centers and machining centers, and has served the U.S. metalworking industry for more than twenty years. Protek is a well respected distributor of metalworking machines and supplies. It’s management team shares more than 50 years industry experience. |
Brown
& Sharpe Expands West Coast Operations with Addition of Two
Distributors Brown &
Sharpe, Inc. has added two distributors to its west coast sales
operation. H S and S Inc.,
Santa Clara, California, will represent Brown & Sharpe in
Northern California. The
company has 10 employees and operates a technical support center,
showroom and service department. HP Gaging,
Riverside, California, will represent Brown & Sharpe Measuring
Systems in an area from east Los Angeles to Riverside County,
California and will be one of two distributors representing Brown
& Sharpe Precision Measuring Instruments in Southern California. “Both
of these distributors have extensive experience selling and
servicing measuring systems,” said Angus Taylor, Brown &
Sharpe west coast Regional Manager.
“They each bring a high degree of knowledge and
professionalism to our operations.”
|
|
Name Change for
Hardinge® CNC Lathes Hardinge
machines have the unique ability to easily accept a jaw chuck or a
collet without the use of an adapter. This capability is now being
emphasized on the company’s latest line of QUEST®
high-performance, multi-tasking CNC lathes. QUEST
51 machines are now labeled QUEST 8/51 (8" jaw chuck/51mm bar
capacity) and QUEST 65 machines are QUEST 10/65 (10" jaw
chuck/65mm bar capacity). Both machine sizes are offered in
precision & Super-Precision®
versions. Because
an adapter is not required for the use of collets on Hardinge
lathes, the collet seats directly in the spindle allowing gripping
forces directly over the workpiece. The result is minimum overhang
of the workpiece from the spindle bearings, resulting in maximum
part rigidity for heavier deeper cuts, maximum utilization of
spindle RPM, superior tolerances and finishes, and a larger work
envelope than lathes equipped with only a jaw chuck or collet
adapter.
|
Todd
Jones Appointed
General Manager
Bill Ankrom,
Methods corporate vice president, has appointed Mr. Todd F. Jones as
general manager of the Methods West/Southern California office. Mr. Jones is an
18 year veteran of the Methods West office in Phoenix, Arizona. He
has been the senior sales engineer and, for the past two years, the
engineering manager of the Methods High-Speed Tech Center
specializing in high-speed machining applications and engineering.
Jones is a degreed engineer and has given several seminars on HSM
technologies. Methods is the
exclusive USA importer/distributor for Nakamura turning centers,
Matsuura machining centers, Fanuc machining centers and wire EDM
systems. Methods West is also the distributor of Citizen swiss screw
machines in southern California and Arizona. The California office specializes in multi-axis turning applications and engineering. |
|
Scott George
Joins Methods West As District Sales Manager
Todd Jones,
Methods West general manager, has appointed Mr. Scott V. George as
Orange County district sales manager. Mr. George is a collegiate All
American swimmer and water polo player and a 1991 graduate of Cal
State Long Beach. He has worked in the southern California
industrial machinery business ever since and most recently with the
DMG Group. Mr. George has complete sales responsibility in Orange County for all Methods milling and turning technologies and Citizen swiss screw machines. He resides in Huntington Beach with his wife and two daughters. |
Randy Martin Joins
Dix Metals
Dix Metals
announced the addition of Randy Martin to its sales team. Mr. Martin
was previously General Manger of Precision Aluminum Sawing Service,
Los Angeles. With some 30 years of hands-on experience in the metal
service industry, Mr. Martin attended San Jose State. Dix Metals recently moved into a new 111,000 sq. ft. facility located in Huntington Beach, California. Dix was founded in 1972 and was originally located in Santa Ana, California. According to Bob Dix Sr., president of Dix Metals, Inc., “The company originally provided raw materials (primarily aluminum) to customers in the manufacturing and metalworking industries. During these initial years, the company found that many precision machining applications required raw materials to be squared prior to finish machining. CNC and conventional machines are not designed to efficiently remove stock to precision dimensional flat, square, and parallel tolerances. Through the years, Dix has invested heavily in equipment specifically designed for this purpose and demand for precision tolerance blanks has grown considerably.” |
|
Tim
Pyle Joins MTI As Manufacturer’s
Rep Manufacturing
Technology, Inc. (MTI)—manufacturer of slicing and dicing systems
and related abrasive products, including diamond blades and
saws—has announced that Tim Pyle has joined MTI as West Coast and
Southwest Manufacturer’s Representative. Tim Pyle brings
more then 20 years of experience in sales and manufacturing and has
for the past three years has worked
at MTI supporting sales efforts. According to MTI, Pyle’s new
position will allow him to spend more time with the the company’s
customer base as he maintains certain key accounts, seeks new
business in current markets, and identifies new markets and
opportunities for MTI’s product line.
|
Delcam Seeks Extra
Resellers in North America Delcam, a
leading specialist developer of modelling and machining software for
the toolmaking industry, is seeking additional resellers for its
CAD/CAM systems in North America.
The company,
which is still seeing increased sales of its Power Solution software
despite the slow down in the American economy, is looking to further
accelerate its growth with additional outlets in central and Eastern
Canada and in several US states, including Delcam is a
supplier of CAD/CAM software for the manufacture of all types of
tooling, including moulds for plastics, glass and ceramics, and
casting dies, press tools and patterns for metals. The Power
Solution software range comprises the PowerShape hybrid modelling
software, PowerMill for the generation of machining data, CopyCAD
for reverse engineering, the ArtCAM engraving package, and the Power-Inspect inspection programm. Together these provide a
complete product development solution, from the initial design
concept through to tooling manufacture for mass production. Companies interested in joining the Delcam reseller network should contact: Pedro Leon, VicePresident, e-mail: pl@delcam.com |
|
Siemens
Opens California Motion Control Tech Center
Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. announced the opening of a western region technical center in Cypress, Cal., to support its machine tool automation customers. The
new tech center will combine resources for OEM Sales, application
engineering and field service for the Motion Control Systems
business in an existing Siemens facility for industrial and
construction sales. The Cypress location was selected to take
advantage of the accelerating trend of machine tool OEMs to source
traditional machine tool automation products such as CNC, servo and
spindle drives with other product groups that include switchgear and
PLCs. Said Sr. account manager Chris Britton, “Customers are increasingly looking for single source suppliers, so having representation of the full Siemens product portfolio locally under one roof makes it easier for them to get the service they need.” Mr. Britton will head up the new technical center. |
Kennametal
IPG Names Three Regional Business Managers Kennametal
Industrial Products Group has reorganized its sales regions to
increase the number of regional managers in the field supporting its
total portfolio of brands within Kennametal IPG, accoring to Ty
Taylor, Kennametal IPG vice president of sales. “The regional
sales managers will be able to focus more time with our key
distributors than ever before,” said Taylor. “And by supporting
Kennametal IPG Brands, we will be able to maximize our market
penetration and minimize conflicts.” Darrel McCoy
has been named Kennametal IPG regional business manager for the
western states. Jeff Carey has been named Kennametal IPG regional
business manager for the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Fred Bock has been
named Kennmetal IPG regional business manage for the northeastern
sales region. Kennametal IPG
applied product specialists and factory representatives will cover
the same territories as they do now, so distributors’ individual
sales people will not
change. The change is in the regional structure that oversees and
supports field sales. “Darrel brings more than 20 years of sales, marketing and management experience to his new role,” says Bill Millwee, Kennametal IPG regional business director for the mid-western United States. “His proven ability to build lasting, successful distributor and end-user relationships, and his excellent track record working with manufacturers representatives make him a true asset to the Kennametal IPG sales management team, it’s distributor partners and its end user customers,” he said. |
|
OGP
Announces New, Larger Western Technical Center Optical Gaging
Products, Inc. (OGP) has relocated its Tempe, Arizona regional
technical center into a larger facility, and expanded the services it
offers. The new facility is designed to support sales, applications
support, service, and training for the company’s customers in the
western United States, Mexico, and western Canada. The move reinforces
the company’s commitment to the region it established with its first
Arizona office in 1985. “We
needed more room to meet the needs of our large, and growing base of
customers,” says Mark Glowacky, western regional manager
for OGP. “Our new multi-purpose facility lets us do product
demonstrations, service, and customer training simultaneously.”
Additions were made to the staff at the Tempe office to enhance these
services. The Tempe
Technical Center has a dedicated classroom with large screen LCD
projection for classroom-based product training, demonstrations, and
regional meetings. The demonstration rooms include all the current OGP
products including SmartScope Flash, Flare, ZIP and Quest 250 benchtop
video measurement systems, SmartScope Quest 450 and Apex large format
systems, Cobra 2D and 3D laser profile scanners, and Focus and QL-20
Contour Projectors. Glowacky says,
“Our expanded demonstration labs give us enough room to demonstrate
our measurement systems and perform detailed applications studies for
our customers at the same time. The decision to move into a large
space was customer-driven. We wanted to be more responsive to customer
requests.” |
NTMA
Training Centers Of Southern California Sets A National Record NTMA
Training Centers of southern California in Norwalk graduated 30
machinist training students Thursday, November 15, setting a national
record for the largest graduating machinist training class. The Los Angeles
chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association established
the Training Centers over 32 years ago as part of their ongoing
efforts to support and promote the vital contributions made in the
country by the machinist industry. The Training centers are located in
Norwalk, Costa Mesa, and Ontario, with a new Training Center soon to
open in the San Fernando Valley. The course work
completed by this class is financed by the State of California under
the Employment Training Panel, which supports programs that provide
training to put unemployed workers back to work. The Panel also
supports retraining to raise the skill level of California’s
employees and advance the State’s economy. “Graduating a
class of 30 students is a tremendous accomplishment by the students
and the staff,” said Irv Hart, NTMA Training Centers CEO. 250 applicants
competed to enter this class of 32 students, and the 30 graduates who
completed the course represent the largest ever graduated from the
Training Centers. The 16-week training course involves rigorous
classroom training that includes algebra, geometry, trigonometry,
blueprint reading and metallurgy, along with progressively challenging
hands-on conventional machinist training and computer numerically
controlled (CNC) training using state-of-the-art equipment. NTMA Training Centers of Southern California is a nonprofit Training Center Trust that prepares and furthers the skills of men and women for a successful career in the machining tooling and manufacturing industry; and provides the industry with qualified trained machinists. |
|
Thomas
Wright Named Thomas N.
Wright—CEO of Anilam, Inc., a Miramar, Florida-based manufacturer of
CNC controls and DRO systems—was recently named CEO of Acu-Rite,
Inc., based in Jamestown, New York. He will maintain both positions. Acu-Rite, Inc.
and Anilam, Inc. are both wholly-owned subsidiaries of DR. Johannes
Heidenhain GmbH, a leading manufacturer of encoders and CNCs. This union
coordinates the activities of the two companies to even better serve
the needs of their customers. The potential synergies will allow the
two companies to run more efficiently and to be better prepared for
future growth. Both companies
will continue to develop products within their current product lines
and will maintain their independent product offerings. Worldwide field
sales and service activities will also continue to function
independently. Changes
expected in the near future include joining the research and
development strengths of both companies, and combining
manufacturing operations in Jamestown, New York. Mr. Wright has
been with Anilam, Inc. for 16 years, and has a strong background in sales and marketing of high-tech measuring and
CNC equipment. He has been connected to the machine tool industry,
which is the main market for Acu-rite´s product range, for over 25
years. |
Mitutoyo
To Resell Delcam’s PowerInspect Software For Their Spinarm II
Articulating Arm
Delcam has
announced that its Japanese subsidiary, Delcam Japan, has signed an
agreement with metrology company Mitutoyo for the resale of its
PowerInspect inspection software alongside Mitutoyo’s SpinArmII
articulating arm. Mitutoyo’s
decision to add PowerInspect to its product range follows a detailed,
six-month evaluation of a variety of inspection software. PowerInspect
provides a quick and easy method for the comparison of tooling or
sample components with CAD data. This type of inspection is becoming
more important throughout the manufacturing cycle as most design data
is now issued as CAD models rather than as drawings. Inspection
reports can be produced automatically, including pictorial, graphical
and tabulated data. By giving real time results in an easy to
understand format, PowerInspect allows problems to be identified
earlier and corrected at lower cost. The Mitutoyo
evaluation was undertaken by Shigeo Miyamoto, chief researcher within
the products development department of the company’s Kawasaki
Research and Development Center. According to Mitutoyo,
PowerInspects’s ability to inspect complex, free-form surfaces and
the ease of use of the software were major factors in its decision.
The strong technical support available from Delcam Japan was also an
important factor. |
|
YCI
And Ellison Partnership YCI. Inc.,
America, based in Santa Fe Springs, CA, and Ellison Machinery Company
of Southern California, also located in Santa Fe Springs, recently
formalized an exclusive distribution partnership for YCI Precision
Machine Tool in Southern California. Ellison
Machinery, a major provider of metal cutting machinery and
manufacturing solutions, can dispatch manufacturing, service,
application and sales engineers to address the full range of
challenges facing equipment users. “Ellison
Machinery is well known in the industry for selling only the highest
quality precision CNC and manual machines, making them an ideal
representative for YCI products,” says Bryan Chen, executive vice
president, YCI Supermax. “Offering decades of machine tool expertise
and an outstanding commitment to the customer, Ellison Machinery
represents all the qualities that people have come to expect from YCI.” The YCI-Ellison
alliance is based upon the same goal and commitment to their
customers; the joint commitment to superior machine quality, excellent
service and total customer satisfaction. According to
Mr. Graham Hooper, vp of sales and marketing of Ellison Machinery of
Southern California, “The alliance of YCI and Ellison will be
exciting and rewarding. The opportunity to combine our capabilities
with those of a world-class manufacturer like YCI will greatly benefit
our customers and should enhance their competitive position and
profitability.” Ellison is part
of the Meritage Corporation, which has 700 employees and offices
throughout the United States and Canada. It is one of the largest
providers of factory automation equipment and engineering services in
the world. YCI Supermax is
one of North America’s leading manufacturers and distributors of CNC
and conventional machine tools. The company’s wide range of products
includes manual and CNC milling machines, CNC turning centers, CNC
vertical and horizontal machining centers. In addition YCI Supermax
offers manual and CNC engine lathes, tool and cutter grinders, and
radial drills. The company’s products are manufactured in Taiwan by
one of the world’s leading machine tool manufacturers: Yeong
Chin Machinery Industries. In addition to being ISO 9001
certified, Yeong Chin is also the first machine tool builder to be
awarded with the ISO 14001 Environmental Protection Certification.
|
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
