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Political uncertainty, economic stability?
- By Jim Anderton
- Jan 1, 2015
- Management
- Article
It said that nature abhors a vacuum, but in business there is no question about it: business abhors uncertainty. Unfortunately, new developments in this year’s Québec provincial election have again stirred the sovereignty issue, with unknown consequences for the business environment in La Belle...
Job Shop Profile: J/E Bearing and Machine
- By Jim Anderton
- Nov 25, 2014
- Metalworking
- Article
Tillsonburg, as any fan of folk legend Stompin’ Tom Connors knows, is all about tobacco. At least it used to be, and like many regions dependent on an industry declining in importance, the southwestern Ontario town moved with the times. The entire region is now part of the regional...
Success by sintering, part 2
- By Jim Anderton
- Nov 24, 2014
- Metalworking
- Article
Few technologies are as widely touted or carry greater expectations than 3D printing. The mass media almost daily reports news of dramatic breakthroughs in the technology, once restricted to plastics but now embracing metals, primarily through selective laser sintering [SLS]. On TV it looks like...
GM’S Big Recall
- By Jim Anderton
- Oct 6, 2014
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
In the auto industry, recalls, once rare, are now so frequent that they barely warrant mention in the daily news. Of the recent batch, the mother of them all is of course the General Motors ignition switch problem which at press time has resulted in a known 13 fatalities. The problem is simple: the...
Stepping up to CMM
- By Jim Anderton
- Sep 26, 2014
- Measurement
- Article
If there’s one universal truth in machining, it’s this: if you can’t measure it, you can’t make it. Metrology in one form or another predates mechanized metalworking, but it’s really the drive to mass production and the need for standardized parts that drove the need...
Success by sintering
- By Jim Anderton
- Sep 18, 2014
- Metalworking
- Article
It seems too good to be true: complex parts without machining, appearing almost out of thin air right before your eyes. While the technology is in its infancy from a production perspective, years of use in prototyping has brought selective laser sintering (SLS) into the forefront among metal...
SME success stories: A different kind of shop
- By Jim Anderton
- Aug 19, 2014
- Metalworking
- Article
In Pointe Claire, Quebec, just outside Montreal, Youssef Nakhoul owns a very nice job shop. There are lots of small shops in Canada, but Mitacor Industries takes a slightly different approach to management, one that is paying off for Nakhoul and his 11 employees. Nakhoul established Mitacor in 2006...
SME success stories: Two skilled siblings
- By Jim Anderton
- Aug 14, 2014
- Metalworking
- Article
In Airdrie, Alberta, near Calgary, two brothers are building a solid job shop the old fashioned way: through quality and service. While those are attributes of all good job shops, Alex and Rich Clugston, the “A and R” of A &R Machining, use a solid fraternal bond to build a...
SME Success Stories: The West Coast Way
- By Jim Anderton
- Aug 12, 2014
- Fabricating
- Article
Coquitlam, like much of the lower mainland of Western British Columbia, welcomes spring with a verdant rush that makes it seem more green and lush than is possible to Canadians east of the Rockies. Across from a schoolyard ball field and backing onto a row of comfortable detached homes is a...
View from the floor: Where things work
- By Jim Anderton
- Jul 28, 2014
- Automation and Software
- Blog Post
Over the years, I’ve written this column from the shores of pristine lakes, from creaky Jumbo Jets 39,000 feet over Siberia and once from the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier. Right now, I’m in a pretty resort town in Switzerland, Interlaken. Normally, the venue...
Stamping without spring back
- By Jim Anderton
- Jul 21, 2014
- Fabricating
- Article
Automotive production is the key user of high-volume stamped steel parts and in the automotive world, there’s a war on. That war is against weight: mass which reduces vehicle performance and more importantly, fuel economy. Plastics, composites and light alloys are all playing a part in the...
Approaching Perfection
- By Jim Anderton
- Jul 17, 2014
- Measurement
- Article
In the November 2013 issue of Canadian Metalworking, the basics of the normal distribution and the origin of “Sigma” and standard deviation were introduced. This month we’ll look at the most basic way that the measurement of actual production attributes contribute to quality...
View from the floor: Let's get sensible about risk
- By Jim Anderton
- Jul 9, 2014
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
"Social license.” It’s the buzzword of the moment in the mainstream media, and when you hear the term, you know one thing: someone’s trying to stop a project somewhere. Right now, the programs most likely to be stopped by a non-binding plebiscite...
Smart Steel
- By Jim Anderton
- Jun 17, 2014
- Fabricating
- Article
There are a thousand ways to spell “trouble” in plastic mold manufacturing and when it strikes, the finger pointing begins in earnest. The material is always a suspect, which is natural when dealing with defects, but there’s a lot going on in a cavity or block between...
Measured, cool and in control
- By Jim Anderton
- Apr 24, 2014
- Metalworking
- Article
At heart, this is a simple business. Take a block of metal, remove the bits that don’t look like your finished part, and voilà, you’re done. For the production side of the chip sector, it looks that simple, with the work hidden inside multi-axis machine tools....
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