Typical Articles Written and Published for Clients

by Richard Herezfeld

Tailor Steel America (Holt, MI), builds precise, complex, multipiece laser-welded body sides for the automotive industry. It is owned by Sidmar Steel (Ghent, Belgium), itself part of the newly formed Arcelor Steel Group headquartered in Luxembourg. Tailor Steel America, incorporated in 1997, specializes in complex laser-welded sides, supplying auto body sides to General Motors and others.

In its first year of operation at Tailor Steel America (Holt MI), an advanced laser welding system having dual gantries and dual portals has lived up to its design capabilitiesit shaved 20 percent off the shop's previous cycle times. The savings may even be greater. For example, the machine accuracy for welding the 4m 2m auto side panels is so precise that the cycle-time-stealing seam tracker no longer needs to be used.

This system took Tailor Steel America to the next generation laser welding system by increasing capacity to meet the production requirements where the dual-portal concept eliminated time lost with an exchange table. Still, the new system was not purchased due to quality problems of the existing systemsa fourth system was needed and the Schuler Held Lasertechnik system was selected because of its high quality.

Industrial Laser Review, January 2004

Welding aluminum with lasers

Aluminum has always been a challenge to weld due to its low melting point and other metallurgical properties. Forty years ago, apprentice welders learned their own special tricks and techniques when welding aluminum conventionally - tricks including the shielding gas, how to reduce the size of the weld path, and so on.

In those days, when the aluminum absorbed the plasma, the water vaporized - it was always the same problem. If the molten material became too hot, it exploded, giving pores or even cavities. Aluminum welding was always something very special, if not necessarily difficult. Later, it was recognized that lasers could play a large role in aluminum welding processes.

Published in Photonics Spectra, September 2002

Warding off the Winner's Curse

Industrial Machine Works has now been using computer aided estimating for the past seven years. In this article, Tim Howell shares that pros and cons or that experience, and why the most valuable jobs are the ones he let get away through Internet bidding.

Published in September 2002 Automatic Machining

Manufacturing Software Intelligence

Since the commercial introduction of the computer, software developers have produced programs that automate and integrate accounting and administrative processes to ensure accuracy, improve productivity, and reduce costs. Advancements made in software development have taken us down the current path to the point where Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are powerful, rich in features, and affordable, even for small- and medium-sized companies.

While significant gains in integration occurred in financial software, integration of manufacturing processes lagged behind .... Unfortunately, advancements in manufacturing technology are largely found in stand-alone software solutions. Except in the largest of manufacturing environments, such as the big three automotive companies, these software technologies have little or no interconnection capabilities.

Published in August 2002 WICPA Journal

Sheet Metal Producer Hones Competitive Edge With Laser Cutter

Topeka Metal Specialties, Inc., a sheet metal manufacturer, has sharpened its competitive stance with the purchase of the 4,000 Watt Gemini flying optic laser, which complements an impressive array of shears, punches, welders, and paint systems. With this phalanx of production machinery, the company is able to perform almost any type of operation on materials such as steel, stainless steel, brass, copper, aluminum, plastics, and more. The new machine extends Topeka Metal's capabilities by cutting thicker steel and stainless steel at over one and one-half times the speed of its previous machines, with greater throughput and much higher accuracy.

Published in May 2002 Welding Design & Fabrication

The need for shop management software

Are you one of the many small manufacturers that either doesn't yet have shop management software or which is making do with your first package to avoid having to again adapt the way you do business?

Industrial Laser Solutions editor Dave Belforte recently found that many of the laser shops looking at shop software feel they want more and more from their software vendors - especially customization. What are they really saying? Do they want more flexibility? More integration with other software? An ability to find date more quickly to make better decisions? Or do they want the software to more closely match their existing system?

Published in Industrial Laser Solutions, March 2002

Building a brewery with orbital welding

When we planned for a major brewery expansion in 1997, we decided to employ the next generation sanitary automated valving in the filtration and yeast handling areas. As part of that whole process, we looked at welding systems and also chose, wherever possible, to use orbital welding. We were putting in very expensive sanitary valving and decided to use a welding technology that could match the same high standards as the valve design.

Sierra Nevada is looked upon nationally by many breweries as one of the finest examples of the brewing business. Nationally known, it has a reputation for producing fine pale ales and other brews. We took full advantage of this peer interest and high public visibility in the new Sierra Nevada plant, designing the facility to be as esthetically pleasing as possible. Only production quality and efficiency took higher priority.

Published in TPJ - Tube & Pipe Journal, March 2002 (Cover Featrue)

Faster flat-part inspections have a plant-wide impact at Mack Molding

The shop had gone first class all the way _ brand new Trumpf punch centers and brakes, a Genesis robotic plasma welder and a pair of Tecna 80KVA resistance welders, plus a Haeger hardware insertion press. For Bill Kelley, manufacturing engineer, the only fly-in-the-ointment was quality inspection. When the shop first started producing parts in the summer of 2000, punched blanks had to be sent a few miles up the road to Mack's East Arlington plant, where quality technicians could check set-ups with their CMM (Coordinate Measurement Machine). The round-trip could take as much as two days and, if a problem in the set-up appeared, two days worth of work might have to be scrapped.

Published in PIQ Produits pour L'Industrie Quebecoise March 2002

Software gets credit for doubling shop business

"I compete against the world market on the Swiss jobs. "Sometimes the buyers tell me where I am in comparison to other people's quotes and I'm within tenths of pennies of the very large shops that I'm competing against. That gives you an idea of the accuracy of the software. It produces the correct information, and that makes us competitive." Mike Oberlander

"For a country boy, that's all right, I guess," Mike Oberlander says with a chuckle when assessing his job shop's growth over the last several years.

All right indeed.

Oberlander, president and owner of First Machine, Inc. of Waterford, Penn., founded his shop in 1994, and by the end of 1997, the company had shown modest growth, then having three employees. But then, thanks in part to the installation of computer-aided estimating software in 1998, First Machine doubled its annual output in each of the next two years. Now the shop has grown to a 20 employee operation.

Published in March 2002 AutoMatic Machining

Contract manufacturer opens new markets with laser cutting

Innova Industries Inc. (Fergus Falls, MN), launched in March 1997 with a "leap of faith," has opened new markets for itself in the automotive, agricultural, recreational, and electronics industries with a new capability for cutting heavier gauge steel with precision, accuracy, and speed.

"Laser cutting aids design engineers with the ability to incorporate features into a part that previously would have required second or third operations," says Dick Young. "Prototypes and small quantity part runs, were always a problem with conventional manufacturing and the laser machine and CNC brake machine seemed an ideal means to address these problems for us."

Published in February 2002 Forming & Fabricating

Water assisted laser cutting yields increased cut speeds

"The operators love the new laser, apart from the fact that it keeps them hopping. They had been able to take their time, and if they had five of one part and two of another - all from different materials - they had a lot of time. Actually, they had too much time between putting up a job and

starting to run that piece. They really couldn't start their next piece until they were totally done with cutting tabs and unloading. We haven't had any complaints from the operators, for they like to be productive - but it does keep them busy, but they like to be productive."

Sheet metal shop helps competitive edge with laser cutter

"The laser machine has allowed us to quote most jobs at a more competitive rate, because it has reduced the cost of tooling and allowed faster and greater throughput of sheet steel," comments Dean Schutter, plant superintendent at Topeka Metal Specialties. "The machine operator can perform other functions once the steel is loaded onto the shuttle tables."

The operator can now set up one full sheet (60 in x 120 in.) on the machine, with a second sheet on the other shuttle table. The ability to nest parts into a larger sheet size eliminates the time necessary to shear a blank size small enough to accommodate the tables of other machines on the shop floor.

The Economics of Cost Estimating.

Can computer aided estimating software do anything?

My grandfather, the owner of a small, successful machine shop was my interviewer. The job was to sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms and mow the yard of the shop. The question he posed to me was how much do you want to make? It was the mid 1970's and my first experience at estimating. What does a 13 year old know about estimating? What's my time worth? How many hours will I have to work to buy that bike? After some deliberations we came to a number. After a few weeks, I began to see the value of tools. Tools like a better mower, the better the mower the faster the yard went and the more I could charge per hour, thus beginning my education in the "real world."

published in December2001 Manufacturing Engineering

Laser-fast First Article Inspection Technology Boosts Productivity

Archie Smith believes in lifelong learning. In fact, he's made self-improvement a company policy at Fife Fabrications Limited, the Scottish manufacturer of high precision, high quality sheet metal work and electronic mechanical assemblies. Such innovative thinking earned the company recognition from Scotland's Minister for Industry and Lifelong Learning in 1999. It also enabled the company that Archie founded in 1972, to address and rectify a nagging problem that was affecting plant productivity.

Published in International Sheet Metal Review, November/December 2001

Automated welding for quality and simplicity

How one company chose and employed automated tube welding

No one questions the fact that automated welding isn't suited to every welding task. The sophisticated automation equipment required can make the process more expensive than other options, but sometimes the payback can be worth the effort.

Frank Wanek was familiar with orbital welding and knew it could be justified for food and chemical processing, in which quality and purity of the weld are paramount, or for heat exchangers involving tight quarters and repeatability concerns. But Wanek had an idea that orbital welding could be justified at his company to weld tubular steel table legs to simple floor pads. In this application he wanted to increase their production and produce an esthetically acceptable weld.

Published in The Fabricator, November 2001

Automated welding brings consistency and flexibility

The addition of the orbital welding process at GC Evans was the result of the purity requirements of its customers in the food an bottling industries. However, orbital welding has done more than satisfy customer requirements. The welding is quicker, the welds are more consistent, and because of that consistency, dressing up the welds no longer is an issue. And, for a company that has more work than its welders can handle, another advantage surfaced: GC Evans is able to use non-welders to accomplish the welding.

Welding Design & Fabrication, September/October 2001

Estimating software supports company's VAVE efforts

Manufacturers have many ways to attack high costs, but when much of the actual manufacturing is jobbed out, there are additional parameters in the equation. At Parker Hannifin's Gas Turbine Facility it is up to the Value Added Value Engineering group to ensure fair costs to the company and profits for its suppliers. The company wants its suppliers to be successful, yet it doesn't want to pay more for a part than it should. Using computerized estimating software as a value-engineering tool has worked well at Parker Hannifin. And the software's capability to run an estimate against several different manufacturing methods simultaneously, for multiple quantities gives the buyers an idea of what to expect for both prototype and production quantities.

Until a little more than a year ago, the Parker Hannifin Gas Turbine Facility in Clyde, New York relied on a software estimating system developed by Manufacturing Engineer Jim Tormey. By 1999, however, he had found it necessary to capture more of the details involved in the part manufacturing process. He was also looking for more accuracy.

Published in Machine Shop Guide, July/August 2001

Value engineering cuts costs and time

Lam Research uses estimating software to hit cost targets, maintain design performance.

While addressing both cost reduction and cost avoidance, design engineers should consider many manufacturing factors; but the time and cost to examine the effects of every option can be prohibitive. Using estimating software, value engineers at Lam Research can quickly explore various fabrication scenarios, including part features, materials, and even fabrication processes to achieve cost targets, while maintaining the required performance of the design.

Published in American Machinist May 2001

Build, deliver, and above all, Communicate

IIt was 1999, and Precision Plus still was fairly satisfied with its 8-10 year old DOS shop management software. Soon, though, that vendor would no longer support the DOS software, having already stopped providing upgrades. Although the software had met the needsof the large Wisconsin screw machine shop well, it lacked many features that companies currently seek in a shop management package - primarily more integration or the ability to interface the customers via email and the Internet." For the most part, there were no serious Y2K issues - it was just that as useful as the software had been, it had run its course.

Published in Manufacturing Engineering, August 2001

Looking Beyond Inspection

Faster flat-part inspections have a plant-wide impact at Mack Molding

Mack Molding's new sheet metal operation was fast coming up on its first open house and the shop was about 99% operational. Pretty good, for most new operations, but when you're part of Mack Molding, 99% isn't good enough.

The shop had gone first class all the way _ brand new Trumpf punch centers and brakes, a Genesis robotic plasma welder and a pair of Tecna 80KVA resistance welders, plus a Haeger hardware insertion press. For Bill Kelley, manufacturing engineer, the only fly-in-the-ointment was quality inspection. When the shop first started producing parts in the summer of 2000, punched blanks had to be sent a few miles up the road to Mack's East Arlington plant, where quality technicians could check set-ups with their CMM (Coordinate Measurement Machine). The round-trip could take as much as two days and, if a problem in the set-up appeared, two days worth of work might have to be scrapped.

Published in Modern Machine Shop, June 2001

Military contract has deadline penalties

Orbital Welding Head fits tight confines, tight schedule

On the first of a series of ships to be refurbished in Norfolk, the Navy shipyard already had cut off all the U bends, stripped the tubing out, and then replaced the tubing and U bends. Then it was up to the welders to perform over 600 orbital welds between the U bend and the tube. That meant 600 welds in the tight confines of a ship boiler room, a daunting task, but one for which the company felt well prepared with its custom weld head. "We were quite confident, based on how we had seen the equipment preform," a welding engineer recalled. "We felt very confident that we could meet the 36 day window."

It actually took only 22 days, all of which was not welding time.

Published in AWS Journal, May 2001

Automated tube welding ensures high quality, less time

In the manufacture of high pressure shell and tube heat exchangers for process industries, welding the tubes to the tube sheets requires particular attention to obtain qualitative results that match customers' technical specifications. To assure high qualitative results of the welding, Harris Thermal Products uses an automatic process _ Automatic TIG, or AGTAW _ that fixes the welding parameters.

Published in The Fabricator, May 2001

Ford installs hydraulic presses with pre-accelerated drawing in bolster

Powered by accumulator drive units, two hydraulic High-Speed Tryout Presses rated at 1,980 tons (18,000 kN) maximum slide capacity each, are the first hydraulic presses worldwide that use pre-accelerated drawing cushions in the bolster. Located at the Ford Motor Company in Chicago Heights, Illinois, the Tryout Presses are capable of exactly simulating the motion curves of the mechanical crossbar presses used in the production of large panels.

Published in Forming & Fabricating, April, 2001

Four Firms Use One Software System

Versatility, general ease of use, and a commitment to customer service through product evolution were factors considered in the selection of a shop management software system at Quality Metal Products of Niles, Mich. The company's unique challenges demanded a versatile system, and its past history with software vendors made service and product support priorities.

Published in Forming & Fabricating, April 2001

Laser Inspection Gets CNC Machines Running Sooner

"Our inspectors are busier because we're finishing more parts and getting them to inspection quicker. (The flat part QC machine) has had a different effect altogether than we anticipated. It has made the inspectors' jobs easier and, at the same time, it has increased their workload because production has picked up. Not only does it put more on their plates every day, it also speeds up the QC process, so I'm getting more parts out the door."

Richard Kaase, VP, Oaks Precision Fabricating, Inc.

Published in Metal Forming, April, 2001

Laser Cutting Thick Material

Do you have an ongoing need to cut thick sheet or plate metals? Perhaps the sheets are not standard sizes as well, for heavy plate often is oversize in length and width. An important consideration should be how often you plan to move and reposition the heavy plates. For example, in addition to cutting, will you have a need for welding or bevel cutting, or even surface treatment of this material? Would multiple processes, such as cutting and welding, be useful on the same machine?

As with other advancing technologies, just a few years ago oxide-free cutting of 3/4 stainless steel or normal 1-inch steel plate wasn't the norm. Germany's Thyssen Steel had just such a challenge at one of its plants where it had been using plasma cutting, but needed to improve the process.

Published in The Fabricator, April, 2001

Easier, flexible estimating software helps contract manufacturer

With 700 employees and 10 facilities, Citation Custom Products (CCP) produces a total of $115 - $120 million in sales annually. The company's Menomonee Falls and Oconomowoc, Wis. locations combined have approximately 600 employees and 300 machine tools, including a variety of horizontal and vertical machining centers for both low and high speed machining processes.

The majority of the contract manufacturer's work, approximately 60%, comes from the automotive industry, says Sr. Project Manager, Art King. CCP supplies first through third tier automotive companies with parts for brake, fuel, and steering systems, as well as engine parts. In the past 18 months, the way CCP determines prices for those parts has changed due to the installation of a computer-aided estimating program, Machine Shop Estimating (MSE) from Micro Estimating Systems.

Published in Modern Machine Shop, January, 2001

Have it Your Way Tool Management

"One thing leads to another, unfortunately," so the saying goes. Sometimes, however, that is a fortunate situation. Like in 1997 when Camco Limited decided to replace an older minicomputer-driven distributed numerical control (DNC) system with a PC-based system. One thing led to another for this Belfast (Northern Ireland) subsidiary of Houston-based Camco International. Soon after starting a pilot program for the new DNC system, it became obvious that a PC-based tool management system also would be a good investment. Soon, tool management seemed to overtake DNC.

Published in Automatic Machining Magazine, March 2001

Software changes improve service, add customers

Canadian shop finds software is key to better competitive position, more accurate pricing, and improved customer service. Time spent up-front setting up software leads to precision in estimates. The resulting improved estimate accuracy and faster turn around enhance the firm's competitive position.

Published in Canadian Machinery & Metalworking Magazine, March 2001

Tool Maker Manufactures A Good Software Fit

Whether a mom and pop job shop, or a larger company with $6 million in annual sales, and 60 employees like the Empire Tool Company of Memphis, Mich., it is important for manufacturing companies to find software vendors whose products and personalities match their approach to business. However, when Edyee Stocks was hired as the tool manufacturer's corporate controller, the company was using a shop management system that was not a good fit for its operations. Because of this, Stocks was soon charged with finding a system, and a vendor, that would offer the support her company required.

Published in Automatic Machining Magazine, March 2001

The decreasing cost associated with laser cutting multilayered textiles

Laser cutting of multilayered textiles can be quite tricky, but it is something Schuler Held Lasertechnik (Heusenstamm, Germany) does well. The process was developed in conjunction with the German company Kolbenschmidt (later named Magna Sicherheitstechnik) for cutting nylon airbag material. That company is owned now by TRW.

Published in Industrial Laser Solutions Magazine, March 2001

Manufacturer takes control of data

Hiring a systems manager was a big step toward taking control of manufacturing data at the Euclid, Ohio fitting manufacturer, Tylok International, Inc. The company replaced a patchwork of computer hardware and software with a single, integrated system, mastering its information and improving customer relations by eliminating opportunities that led to unrealistic delivery date promises.

Published in Production Machining Magazine, Mar/Apr 2001

Estimating Software Yields Higher Profits

Two years ago, after purchasing a computer-aided estimating system, Liberty Brass began an intensive, all encompassing operation analysis that included precise time studies for each piece of equipment in the shop. The results were a drastic shift in the company's corporate culture, the loss of the shop's three largest customers, and record breaking profit levels.

Published in Production Machining Magazine, Jan/Feb 2001

Breaking from Tradition Increases Efficiency

Sales brochures for Caterpillar's Advanced Compacting Technology (ACT) group urge prospective customers to increase profits by breaking with tradition. While other companies might use similar slogans to create interest, for the ACT group breaking with traditional manufacturing techniques has, itself, become a tradition of sorts.

Published in Automatic Machining Magazine, November 2000, page 38

Cleaning up the tool kit mess

Richardson Manufacuturing, the first North American company to install a popular European tool management system, reports that it won't take long for the software to pay for itself. The savings are coming from reduced downtime, savings on monthly tooling expenditures, and less frequent express shipping for tooling.

During the first business quarter since the software was installed in October 1999, the shop experienced a trend of substantial savings in monthly tool expenditures.

Published in CNC West Magazine, October/November 2000, page 36

Caveat for cost estimating

With computer-aided estimating systems today, the user has a wide choice - capability wise. Know that when people talk about estimating software, typically they refer to one of two groups of software:

• Software which simply assists the shop owner to determine a price. The estimator manually calculates or guesses the time it will take. This is a computer prepared quote.

• Other software provides, in addition to quoting, estimates of actual times the job will require in the shop. When the computer estimates the times, this a computer generated estimate.

Published in Metalfax  Magazine, October 2000, page 54

Opportunities for new business are there to be found

Rod Gross took a gamble when he left an established position as a purchasing manager with GVM Incorporated to start his own business, Precision Cut Industries (PCI). In spite of that risk, Gross is now the president of a successful new fabrication shop, in part because he hedged his bets by heavily researching purchases, aligning himself with potent business allies, and implementing both common sense and cutting edge technology to make his business as efficient as possible.

Published in Metal Forming, September 2000

NASA Spacecraft, Launch Vehicles depend on Orbital Welding

The propulsion systems for our nation's satellites and launch vehicles, as with every component manufactured for the NASA's Space Program, must meet high quality certification standards. For Mike Serafin, Welding Engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company-Astronautics Operations in Denver, Colorado that means every weld must pass the highest purity and integrity tests.

For these space bound products, the welds are critical. If only one weld failed, it could be catastrophic. "Our philosophy is to insure 100% Mission Success in all our work. Once a vehicle is launched and in orbit, there is no way to fix it. If there was a problem and a weld failed, you could lose a mission."

Orbital welding applications in the aerospace industries demand high precision, a quality that can be

entirely reproduced, and a reject rate that is as low as possible. Orbital welding can reduce production time and ensure rejection rates of less than 1%..

Published in TPJ Tube & Pipe Journal,July 2000

Job Shop Software _ Headed towards full connectivity

The sales manager came into the plant manager's office. He asked: "Did that part go out last Thursday as planned?" The manager said, "Yes, but maybe I should check."

That exchange took place while I waited in a North Carolina shop manager's office to schedule a training class for some software I'd just installed.

After 20 minutes of costly personnel running around, they found the part _ still sitting on the dock. With a shop management system, the question may never have arisen. In fact, if software had been tracking orders and shipments, the part probably would not still have been sitting on the dock.

I was amazed: this was a good-sized, CNC machine shop, and while not computer experts, neither were the employees unfamiliar with computers. There are computers throughout the office and on the shop floor. There are almost 100 people in the shop, making top quality, high precision parts and fixtures. The shop's capabilities are impressive. It designs fixtures for customers in CAD, but then they send the paper drawing to the machinist. There are CNC controls on most shop equipment, but no DNC system. The machine operators program the parts directly on the machine tool _ and the company is making money.

The company is profitable, and the people do an incredible job. It was amazing that management had left itself open for things to slip through the cracks.

Published in Manufacturing Engineering, May 2000

Breaking from Tradition Increases Efficiency

Sales brochures for Caterpillar's Advanced Compacting Technology (ACT) group urge prospective customers to increase profits by breaking with tradition. Opened in August 1994, and shipping parts by October of the same year, the ACT group's Rockwood plant now produces nearly nine million parts annually and has won numerous Ferrous Awards of Distinction in the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) P/M Part-of-the-Year contest. While all of this might be enough innovation for some companies, Caterpillar's ACT group continues to break with tradition throughout its operations, not only on the plant floor, but also in its administrative efforts. One way the group has continued to achieve this goal is through the implementation of a computer-aided estimating program, Machine Shop Estimating (MSE) from Micro Estimating Systems.

Published in SAE Off Highway, April 2000

Lasers _ Any Way You Like Them

In many fields, systems integrators provide a valued service, combining hardware and software to meet specific, sometimes difficult, customer application requirements. For the past 25 years, European customers knew to turn to Held Lasertechnik for solutions to those kinds of tricky applications. Held _ today called Schuler Held Lasertechnik after its recent acquisition by the Schuler Corporation _ isn't the typical laser equipment vendor.

Published in Metalforming, April 2000

Lasers for QC on the Plant Floor

Sometimes you see a new product and you're impressed, even inspired by its concept and potential. We felt that way the first time we saw a demonstration of a new laser quality control machine and bought it because we could see tremendous potential for its use in our manufacturing environment. We were looking for a better way to reduce first article inspection times at RuMar Mfg Corp, and our first encounter with this flat part laser scanning system truly excited us. Today we are reaping the rewards.

Published in Industrial Laser Solutions, April 2000

Orbital Welding Complements Restructuring Goals

Union personnel teamed with management to find a new solution to production challenges _ orbital welding equipment. Together with new kitting procedures, the equipment has helped achieve the efficiency and productivity management was after when Felker Brothers was restructured in the early 90s.

Gradual software implementation allows users to find comfort zone

"Software has helped to make us more effective in terms of on-time delivery. We've been averaging between 90 and 95% on-time delivery this year and our shop management system is part of what helps us along with that. The guys on the floor still have to make it happen, but it certainly gives us an edge in keeping on top of jobs." _ John Cullip

Published in Welding, Design & Fabrication, May 2000

Back Door IPO

If someone told you you could take your company public without waiting in line and without paying much of the hefty fees associated, would it get your attention/

It certainly got Chuck Beyer's attention three years ago when he first was introduced to the idea by a business investment contact. Beyer took his 14-year-old company public in October 1998.u co

In his case, Beyer figures he saved half the money and did twice as much work _ work that others probably would have done for a conventional IPO.

Although slightly less risky and less costly than a traditional IPO _ which can run millions of dollars _ there still is a significant amount of risk involved for business owners.

Published in Small Business Times, May 26, 2000

AC Motors Replace Hydraulics, DC Motors for Heavy Structures

This presentation examines the technological developments that make it feasible to replace hydraulics and DC servo motors with AC motors in heavy movable structure applications. Such retrofitting of old, but mechanically sound equipment with conventional induction motors and/or flux vector servo controls affect safety, and environmental issues, and also extends that equipment's useful economic life by bringing performance up to modern standards.

Speech prepared for Heavy Movable Structures Symposium

Working with customers _ and vendors

What configuration of an IGES file will cut better with your CAM system? Is Surface Curve better than the UV Parametric curve? Which of the two entities is better than the other? Do I want the polynomial, the parametric, or do I want the NURB? (non uniform rational b spline) Which will cut better when it comes into the system? A problem with many IGES files is duplicate entities. There is a way to eliminate that problem when exporting the file. Look at the tools that you have. Apex has done it with ProCAM and it's worked well for the company. Conceivably, every shop could uncover the same capabilities in their software, by working with their vendors.

Published in Modern Machine Shop, July, 2000

Breaking from Tradition Increases Efficiency

Sales brochures for Caterpillar's Advanced Compacting Technology (ACT) group urge prospective customers to increase profits by breaking with tradition. Opened in August 1994, and shipping parts by October of the same year, the ACT group's Rockwood plant now produces nearly nine million parts annually and has won numerous Ferrous Awards of Distinction in the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) P/M Part-of-the-Year contest. While all of this might be enough innovation for some companies, Caterpillar's ACT group continues to break with tradition throughout its operations, not only on the plant floor, but also in its administrative efforts. One way the group has continued to achieve this goal is through the implementation of a computer-aided estimating program, Machine Shop Estimating (MSE) from Micro Estimating Systems.

Published in SAE Off Highway