August  •  September 2005 • Vol. XXIII No. 6 • An Arnold Publication

Industry  News • Executive Hotline

Executive Hotline

Booming at Boeing Plane Sector is Hot, Yet Volatile Boeing Names 3M’s McNerney as its New CEO.

China Eastern Airlines said a unit has agreed to buy two Boeing Co. 747 cargo aircraft.

Company booked orders for 277 planes during first five months, many for the fuel efficient 787, a long range wide body jet that is scheduled to enter service in 2008.  Instead of loading it with customized features, Boeing designed a plane that could easily shift out of one carrier’s fleet into another. However, cancellation of an order from Air Canada for jets valued at $6 billion shows how volatile the industry remains.

Boeing and United Technologies Corp. are teaming to compete for a proposed Air Force search and rescue helicopter.  Alaska Airlines is ordering 35 Boeing 737’s and Spanish carrier Air Europa said it will acquire 18 of the narrow body jets. Boeing launched a new version of its narrow body 737 jet as it completed a 30 plane sales agreement with Lion Air, a low cost Indonesian carrier.

Aerospace News – NASA, Lockheed-Martin

The Beam Control Fire Control system developed by Lockheed Martin for the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, which is managed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, has completed initial flight testing.   The low-power passive capabilities of the Beam Control Fire Control system were successfully demonstrated at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. 

Lockheed Martin was awarded three contracts totaling $15.2 million by the U.S. Marine Corps, including a follow-on order for Virtual Combat Convoy Trainers (VCCT) and two orders for Adva. The Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) instrument, designed and built at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center (ATC) for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., is awaiting launch on the NOAA GOES-N spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. SXI is one of a suite of instruments that resides Aced Gunnery Training Systems (AGTS).

The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) awarded a $13.3 million contract to Longbow Limited (LBL) for Life Cycle Contractor Support (LCCS) of the Longbow Fire Control Radar (FCR).

Buy & Sell & Merge

In a sign of consolidation in the chip industry, Santa Clara’s Integrated Device Technology of Santa Clara announced it would buy Integrated Circuit Systems in a merger valued at $1.7 billion in cash and stock.  ICS makes chips known as clocks, which control the pace of personal computers and other electronic systems, while IDT is a 25 year old chip company that makes communications chips for telephone and wireless networks.  IDT hopes the deal will make it a broad competitor to rivals like Cypress Semiconductor in San Jose.

Broadcom is acquiring Siliquent Technologies, a privately held maker of semiconductors, for $76 million.  Oracle Corp. agreed to buy closely held TimesTen Inc. to add software that speeds up searches for information in databases.  This acquisition follows the $10.6 billion purchase of PeopleSoft Inc. in January.  Yahoo plans to buy Dialpad to expand its VoIP offerings that lets people place calls over the Internet.  Symantec Corp.’s acquisition of storage-software provider Veritas Software Corp. closed July 2nd – the deal is valued at just under $11 billion and combines companies with vastly different strategies, to become the fifth largest software company.  Network Appliance, whose data-storage computers are used by the US Marines and the Vatican, agreed to buy Decru for $272 million to add equipment that protects data from being read by unauthorized people.  IBM bought Meiosysm, a maker of software to allow uninterrupted movement of applications between servers.  Sun Microsystems Inc. unveiled a plan to acquire another technology company, SeeBeyond Technology Corp. of Monrovia for $387 million, which makes software that helps businesses integrate their computer networks.  Microsoft is in talks to buy Adware Developer Claria, formerly called Gator, best known for its pop-up ads and software that tracks people visiting websites.

NewsBriefs at Presstime

ChevronTexaco will become just “Chevron” again.

Weekly salaries rose an average of 5.7% in US at the end of 2004 bolstered by commissions and end of year bonuses, which are included in the count.

Seagate Technology returned to a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter.

Intel says earning rose 16% in second quarter, due to healthy growth in computer industry and strong demand for notebook computers.  BEA Systems unveiled Web tools to facilitate data flow with a new product line, AquaLogic to enable disparate software systems to flow through an organization like water.  Nokia, Intel plan to collaborate on wireless technology WiMAX that is an alternative way to deliver both stationary and mobile Internet access at high speeds.

Chips Ahoy – Big Demand

The Semiconductor Industry Association raised its chip-sales forecast for 2005 to $226 billion, a 6% increase over last year, due to stronger than expected sales of cell phones, digital TV’s and personal computers.  Intel revenue forecasts of revenue between $8.6 billion and $9.2 billion helped fuel the optimism, and the entire semi-conductor industry had strong sales in the first four months especially. Orders for chip-making equipment fell in May to 34% lower in May than a year ago but have become more stable in the last six months. Digital televisions are estimated to be up 65%, digital cameras up 16%, cell phones up 13% and PC’s up 10%.  Chip revenues are expected to rise in the next three years, due to popularity of portable digital music players like Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod, chip sales could break the $300 billion barrier by 2008.  The Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing market for semiconductors and accounts for 46% of a worldwide market estimated at $309 billion in 2008.

Intel’s researchers announced that a prototype chip has been developed by its communications technology lab in Hillsboro, Oregon that combines a radio, a power amplifier and other components, in a quest to create phones that could roam across different types of networks in any part of the world.  It might handle signals as varied as long range WiMax wireless Internet signals, shorter-range WiFi, Bluetooth signals for transferring data abut 30 feel and cell phone signals at the same time.

A trio of companies Cadence Design Systems, graphics chip designer ATI Tehcnologies, and contract chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing – have come up with a new design using diagonal lines for carrying electrical signals in chips – dubbed the “X architecture”.  This new technique will cut chip design and manufacturing costs by 10-20% and improve performance by reducing electrical congestion inside chips by cutting the distance an electrical signal has to travel, reducing the amount of wiring needed by 20%.

Intel’s co-founder and inventor of the first microchip, Robert Noyce, who died in 1990 at the age of 62, was honored by Intel by dedicating an exhibit commemorating his life at the firm’s museum in Santa Clara.  Bob Noyce was considered one of the most important inventors of our time and one of the most important entrepreneurs of our time, according to Leslie Berlin, author of “The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley.”

Jack Kilby, the Nobel Prize-winning inventor of the microchip died at age 81.  His invention in 1958 spawned the $214 billion chip business and the $1 trillion electronics industry.

HP will use AMD’s Turion 4 microprocessors for use in its Compaq nx series of business notebook computers.

Bicycles & Autos

The 21-year old NUMMI plant in Fremont owned by Toyota and GM will get more than $140 million in assembly line renovations over the next five years.  NUMMI made 380,679 vehicles last year, including the Corolla sedan and Tacoma pickup for Toyota and hthe Pontiac Vibe for GM, and is setting a pace for NUMMI to make 400,000 vehicles in a year for the first time in its history with a workforce of 5,700.  A substantial investment would be good news for NUMMI – the only auto assembly plant in the West Coast.  

Specialized Bicycle Components is now number 2 in the US after its founder, Mike Sinyard, began selling imported bike parts from a trailer in 1974.  Today Specialized sells 500,000 bicycles a year – from BMX and kids’ models to mountain bikes to road-racing models costing almost $6,000.  The private company also provides a highly profitable line of helmets, tires, sunglasses, seats and other gear with annual sales of about $300 million.

Computers & Electronic Data

The Lawrence Livermore National Labs has the world’s most powerful computer – IBM’s BlueGene/L System, containing 62,000 microprocessors.  The computer can simulate and record minute details of what happens in a nuclear explosion and can perform 135 trillion calculations per second.  HP announced that they have developed a new strategy for designing a quantum computer composed of switches of light beams that could be more powerful than today’s digital electronic computers, constructed from transistors.  HP said that it would receive as much as $10 million from Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to design a prototype of the technology, and HP will contribute about $7.5 million to the project. Dell, the world’s biggest PC maker, plans to introduce a premium brand of high-priced personal computers that will likely cost $1,200 to $3,500 and might include multimedia features for home entertainment.  Apple Computers’ quarterly earnings soared by strong sales of the iPod digital music player and Macintosh personal computer, with a 75% jump in revenue. Sun Microsystems, Inc., whose servers run corporate networks, slashed prices by as much as 40% on its computer workstation prices and will begin selling its first notebook models.  The plan is to cut prices on the least expensive desktop workstations to persuade customers to buy server and data-storage computers.  Notebook sales are forecasted to jump 22% this year, with a 7% gain by desktop PCs.

Sodick Appoints CNC Solutions in Northern California

CNC Solutions recently announced that they have been appointed the exclusive representative for Sodick EDM Systems for Northern California and Nothern Nevada.

Sodick has installed more than   10,000 linear-motor technology EDM’s worldwide, including wire & sinker EDMs

Shop Floor Automations to Sell PDA Hand-Held Unit

 Shop Floor Automations (SFA),  a leading independent supplier of DNC Networking and Automation Software for the Manufacturing Industry has signed a agreement with Vista  Software.  SFA will be the exclusive distributor for Vista Software, which produces PDA Software for Palm Hand-Held Units.

VistaSerial is an application that allows you to transfer files back and forth between most CNCs.  Using standard XON/XOFF communication protocol, this simple-to-use interface allows you to backup or quickly load G-Code programs. An unlimited number of machine templates can be used to store baud rates, data bits, stop bits and parity for different CNC controls. Programs can be edited within the unit for a quick change to any other G-code.

Vista also allows files to be transferred from a desktop computer to the PDA. The transfer is binary, so an exact copy of the original file is stored on your handheld. It can be used for backups, uploading files to CNC machines, collecting data from probes, or transferring files between remote computers!

There is no 4Kb limit on the file size, so large files can be copied to the  hand-held unit. Files remain in their native format after copying, so no special synchronization is needed.

VistaSerial can be communicated with any RS-232 serial port. Two models (color and black and white) are currently offered as bundled solutions Both solutions are complete with software, PDA Palm Unit, RS232 cable and complete documentation. 

Haas Automation Facility Tops 1,000,000 Sq Ft  with New Expansion

Haas Automation, Inc.,  has begun construction of a new 211,000-sq-ft building at its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California. The new addition represents the third building expansion in 9 years for Haas, and will push the company past the million-square-feet milestone.

“That’s why we bought 86 acres when we moved here,” explains Haas general manager Bob Murray. “We planned that, as our business grew, we’d put up new buildings to expand our capabilities.”

Haas Automation’s sales have more than doubled over the last two years, driving production to record levels. With worldwide demand for the company’s products reaching all-time highs, Haas now is on target to produce a staggering 10,000 machines in 2005 – a number to challenge any machine tool builder in the world.More than 50,000 Haas CNC machines are currently in service worldwide.

Change at the Top For Clausing

It is exciting times at Clausing Industrial, Inc, with a new person heading up the company. After more than thirty years of service, President Bill Nancarrow is retiring. The pivotal task of leading this important 600 Group company into the future has been accepted by Joe Felicijan, until now Vice President Sales of Clausing.

Joe has been with the company since the early seventies and knows the market intimately. First working as an applications and service engineer in the field, he moved over to work in sales, selling the Colchester CNC lathes. He became General Sales Manager and then Vice President Sales with responsibility for all sales in the Unites States. “There are great things to be done and I am looking forward to further developing the market” he said.

“I am very excited by the opportunities which lay ahead of Clausing. We have machines developed specifically to meet the current market demands, and they are machines which are proven. We have an established and demonstrably effective support network”.

Retiring President, Bill Nancarrow, leaves Clausing after more than thirty years of service to the company and the machine tool industry. He said “It is with mixed emotions that I have announced that I will be retiring from Clausing Industrial Inc. after 30 years of service. I will be leaving my Clausing family and I will miss all of it. We have all been through a lot over that time, some good times and some not so good times, but that’s just like any family and it will be tough to say goodbye to such a big part of my life. On the happy side, with all my family on the west coast, (Las Vegas and Seattle), my wife and I want to be able to spend more time with them and watch our grandchildren grow up. So I am looking forward to retirement as well as feeling the wrench of leaving an industry I have loved and I company I have been pleased to serve”.

Hexagon Metrology Acquires L. S. Starrett’s CMM Business.

Hexagon Metrology North America and The L. S. Starrett Company announced that Sheffield Measurement Inc, a division of Hexagon Metrology North America has acquired the Coordinate Measuring Machine product division of  The L. S. Starrett Company. The acquisition was effective June 1.

The acquisition is limited to Starrett¹s coordinate measuring machine product line only; no other products were included in the deal. Sheffield Measurement will assume customer service and support and spare parts sales for all of the Starrett machines currently in the field, as well as gaining all designs, plus new and used machine inventory associated with the Starrett CMM business.

Heartech Precision Inc. (HPI) Establishes New West Coast Warehouse Facility

“To effectively supply a demographic area like the West Coast of the United States, where many times delivery is the deciding factor in making a sale, products like those manufactured by HPI have to be inventoried and readily available, says Hiro Kashiwakura, president of Heartech Precision Inc. based in Elk Grove, Illinois. “As a result we have recently established a new warehouse facility in Vista, California that will ultimately provide up to $500,000 of inventory in support of our existing customers, as well as provide the necessary back-up for the sales and marketing activities of our west-coast distributor organizations.”

Leo Flick, HPI regional sales manager, emphases, “We now feel we have excellent service and technical know-how through our experienced distributor network, but on-hand product support is the real key. As of May 1, 2005 we had over 3,000 toolholders, collets and tooling packages in stock at our new facility, as well as a variety of selected rotary index tables and the types of air and diaphragm chucks that are applicable to our existing and potential West Coast customers. We now believe we have the right combination of sales and inventory to make some significant market penetration for HPI products here.”

Leadwell CNC Appoints Meyers Machinery Sales Leadwell Distributor for Southern California

Leadwell CNC Machine Tools, exclusively imported by Campat Machine Tools, Plano, Texas, recently joined forces with Meyers Machinery Sales as the new distributor for the southern California Machine Tool Market.

“This change reflects Leadwell’s continuing commitment to provide excellent service to all of our customers in southern California and will strengthen and improve leadwell’s position in this vital market. This marks the beginning of our next step to show our commitment to all manufacturing companies in the western region” says David Valentine, Vice President of sales.

Leadwell is a premier builder of CNC Machine Tools, including: lathes, drill/tap machines, vertical and horizontal machining centers and manufacturing cells and systems.

Meyers Machinery Sales will compliment this expertise with their many years of service and turnkey applications engineering. Meyers will be providing new machine sales, parts support and service for all Leadwell machine in Southern California.

Meyers Machinery Sales, with their showroom in Orange, California will be able to demonstrate Leadwell CNC Machine Tools under power and handle all your turnkey applications.

“With the addition of Leadwell to Meyers we can serve our Southern California manufacturing industries with a high quality, premier Taiwanese builder of CNC Machine Tools that suites all of our customers demanding needs”, says Jim Carlisle, President of Meyers Machinery Sales.

Phillips Corporation Acquires Olympia Engineering

Toronto-based Olympia Engineering Corporation has been recently renamed Phillips Olympia. A year ago, Phillips Corporation of Columbia, Maryland, made an investment to become the majority owner of the company and in March exercised an option to increase their share to 95%.

Phillips Olympia is a supplier of manufacturing technology for machining large parts (one meter to four meters). The company uses technology based modules for vertical turning centers, horizontal boring bars and machining centers, and grinding machines to create custom solutions. 

Lev Kishlyansky, Michael Binder, and Viktor Lamm lead the solutions-oriented engineering team. To the team they bring strong financial management and a great sales channel. Recent additions include Denis Dupuis, formerly of Haas Automation, as senior advisor for business development,  Eric Lin as  manager of Asian operations, and Jim McGaffin as  executive vp.

HURCO, MDSI Announce Extended Cooperation

Manufacturing Data Systems, Inc. (MDSI), Ann Arbor, MI, and Hurco Companies, Inc. (Hurco), Indianapolis, IN, have agreed to extend their long-term collaboration agreement for the development of various control-related software technologies. According to Michael Tarr, global sales director for MDSI, “Our collaboration will leverage the combined resources of each company for the development of new control and software technologies.”

According to Jim Fabris, president and COO, Hurco Companies, Inc., “Advanced, user-friendly control and software technologies are significant market differentiators in our business strategy.  Both contribute to the skill multiplying capability necessary for users to improve the overall efficiency of their machining operations while maintaining highly competitive global standards.”

Davenport Machine Receives ISO 9001 Certification

The New Davenport Machine,   Rochester, NY, has achieved ISO 9001 certification.  After acquiring the assets of Davenport about two and a half years ago, the New Davenport has continued to improve processes and upgrade products to regain market share rapidly. 

The company, committed to high quality parts and machinery, as well as outstanding customer service, has earned has earned ISO certification.  Davenport is now the only ISO certified manufacturer of Davenport replacement parts in the world.

Sandvik Coromant Facilities Earn ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000 Certification

Sandvik Coromant has announced   that its U.S. headquarters, along with 7 other locations throughout North America, has earned ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000 certification. Recognized as symbols of quality around the world, these certifications confirm compliance with international management standards.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a network of national standards institutes from 148 counties. ISO 14001:1996 certification recognizes environmental management systems for meeting internationally recognized standards in areas such as environmental policy, environmental impacts of products/activities/services and the implementation of programs to achieve environmental objectives.

ISO 9001:2000 certification recognizes quality management systems for complying with standards ensuring customer satisfaction, continually improving performance and meeting regulatory requirements.

“The ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000 certifications reflect Sandvik Coromant’s strong commitment to both environmental issues and quality management,” says Mike Abberley, president, Sandvik Coromant US.

BVQi, the world’s leading independent certification body, performed audits of Sandvik Coromant’s management systems. After verifying compliance with the necessary standards, BVQi, as an ISO accredited registrar, presented the ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000 certifications.

Milacron Names Oregon Company 2004 Distributor of the Year

The CimCool division of Milacron, Inc., announced that General Tool & Supply Co, with corporate offices in Portland, OR. is the 2004 CimCool Distributor of the year. Branch offices in Portland, Seattle and Lewiston support the Norwest Territory of Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Industrial Tool & Supply, a division of General Tool & Supply Co. covers the states of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as northern Mexico through two branch offices and warehouses located in Tuscon and Tempe.

“We are very pleased to name General Tool as 2004 Distributor of the year” says Don Miller, business unit manager, CimCool Metalworking Fluids Div. “It’s always been our goal not only to provide the broadest array of fluid services, support, and information; but also to anticipate our customers’ needs and exceed their expections.”

Metris Appoints “Quality Measurement Technology Inc.” as Metris Service Center (MSC)

Metris, a market leader in CMM based laser scanning, has appointed Quality Measurement Technology as a Metris Service Center (MSC).

QMT Inc., based in Seattle, Washington (USA) has further extended their current dimensional measuring service activities with the Metris LC15 and LC50 non-contact solutions. As an MSC, QMT will provide service work, benchmarks and demonstrations, in addition to technical support, training and installation for Metris customers.  Beside standard MSC activities, QMT will also actively sell the Metris solutions in the western  United States.

Jim Clark, Sales Director of Metris USA comments: “Metris is very pleased to cooperate with QMT as a Metris Service Center. There has been a growing interest for non-contact applications and with their technical expertise and professional service organization, QMT is perfectly positioned to offer these solutions and services to their customers, as well as ours.”

Tom Demogines, President of QMT adds: “ During our long-term activity as provider of precise measurement and metrology equipment and services, we encountered increased requests for non-contact digitizing. The service work using the Metris non-contact scanners is particularly interesting to our customers that are mainly active in manufacturing industries such as aircraft/aerospace, medical, electronics, and transportation. There is a growing demand for full part inspection and reverse engineering of sheet metal, plastic injection parts, dies, molds, and aircraft tooling where the Metris scanning solutions are perfectly suited for these applications. “

Metris providesCMM based laser inspection, with the Metris LC and XC laser scanners for full part and feature measurement. Other core products comprise the Dynamic CMM and Laser Radars. The Dynamic CMM’s are portable, hand-held optical coordinate measuring machines.  The Metris Laser Radar iprovides automated, non-contact measurement capability for large-volume applications of up to 60 meter radius. Metris completes the system with a full range of complementary software solutions for inspection and reverse engineering applications.

Mastercam® #1 Among CAM Manufacturers

The most recent analysis of CAM software seats produced by CIMdata, Inc., shows that CNC Software’s Mastercam is once again the world’s most widely-used CAD/CAM software for 11 straight years. They have 85,577 installed seats worldwide.

CNC Software president Mark Summers says, “There is a lot of competition in the CAM market today, and we are pleased to be at the top for another year. By listening to our customers and resellers, we have worked hard to develop the best CAD/CAM software we possibly can.”

CNC Software is the leader in both the industrial and educational markets with the most installed seats as of year’s end 2004.

CIMdata Chairman Alan Christman notes, “With 13% of the global market for total CAM seats installed in 2004, almost twice that of the nearest CAM vendor, CNC Software is the leader on the basis of both industrial and educational seats installed. CNC Software has consistently ranked number one in installed seats since CIMdata started measuring the market. Mastercam is often viewed as the de facto standard CAM software product.”

Metric Machining Corporation Continues Long Term Growth

Metric Machining Corp. continues its 35 year history of growth and innovation with two recent strategic decision. The original Metric Machining facility in Monrovia, California has been consolidated to the location of its GOE Engineering Division in Ontario, California. This included a recent auction of older, obsolete equipment located at the Monrovia location.

All current machinery from Metric‘s Monrovia, including multi-spindle screw machines, CNC machines and precision grinding operations moved to a new second building at the consolidated Metric Machining , Ontario campus. All divisions are now known as Metric Machining Corporation.

Dave Kilian has also joined Metric Machining Corp.  as national sales manager. He brings 30 years of sales and management experience to Metric.

Surfware Launches Terminal Velocity Tour

Surfware Inc. developers of Surfcam CAD/CAM systems, announced the start of its Terminal Velocity Tour. This tour will span across North America to include locations in Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Birmingham, Salt Lake City, Tacoma, and Minneapolis. At each tour stop Surfware will provide live demonstrations of its groundbreaking TrueMill technology, a completely new toolpath engine that dynamically manages tool loads for dramatically reduced cycle times.

“I believe True Mill is revolutionizing machining as we know it, “said Domenic Lanzillotta, vice president of worldwide sales at Surfware.” With this technology, advanced machining is no longer just “high-speed”, it’s “high efficiency” which maximizes productivity and profitability.”

High efficiency machining combines TrueMill with various machine tool and component manufacturer’s products to provide highly synergistic results in manufacturing .

CNC Solutions Adds Two New Employees

CNC Solutions recently announced  the appointment of Steve Allnutt as applications and service assssistant  effective July 11th, 2005.

Allnutt has more than 25 years experience in the machine yool industry as a machinist, applications manager, service technician, and shop owner. Allnutt is very knowledgable in all aspects of  machining, with many years of experience in multiaxis turning and milling applications.

His responsibilities include product training, application assistance and customer support. His  main focus will be supporting the new line of high technology machines that Daewoo is bringing to the market place, including the “MX” series.

CNC Solutions also announced  that Don Miller, well known in the Northern California EDM market, has joined  the company as EDM product manager. Miller brings with him more than 20 years of EDM experience and customer  relationships. He has had a long affiliation with Sodick EDM products.  Miller’s responsibilities include product training, application assistance and customer support on the Sodick EDM product line.