Cincinnati Machine, the Oakley-based aerospace machine-tool company, has signed an agreement with one of Taiwan's leading aircraft companies to expand its service and support on the island.

        The agreement is with Aerospace Industrial Development Corp., based in Taichung, Taiwan. The new agreement provides AIDC with training and support as new products are introduced in Taiwan, Cincinnati Machine said.

        Cincinnati Machine, a unit of Unova Corp. also said sales for its fourth quarter were the highest for the company in the last year and a half.

        About 85 percent of new orders was for high-production tools in the aircraft and aerospace markets, the company said.
       

TechSolve research helps machining problem

        Research done at TechSolve, the manufacturing resource center in Bond Hill, on machining of aluminum metal matrix composites could lead to greater use of the material.

        Despite its light weight and other superior characteristics, one of the big obstacles to greater use of the composites is the difficulty and higher cost of machining, said Mike Gugger, manager of the M. Eugene Merchant Machining Research Lab at TechSolve.

        TechSolve studies demonstrated greater tool life and cost-effectiveness for chemical vapor diamond cutting tool inserts in machining the material compared with more expensive cutting inserts.

        “Working with these materials has been likened to farming rocky soil,” he said. “Once they found the right steel for plows, a lot of land became much more valuable.”

        The TechSolve research is reported in the January issue of Journal of Advanced Materials, published by the Society of Material and Process Engineering.
       

November orders up 8.7% for cutting machines

        November orders for machines that cut and form metal totaled $474 million, up 8.7 percent from the estimated $437 million recorded in the same month last year, two industry trade groups said.

        The November sales, computed from reports by U.S. machine tool builders and distributors, were up less than 1 percent from the $471 million reported in October, according to the AMTDA, American Machine Tool Distributors Association and AMT — Association for Manufacturing Technology.

        Orders for the year totaled $5.4 billion, up 1.4 percent from the same period last year.

        The trade groups said order activity this year in down in the Midwest but up in the western United States. Export orders in November declined 23 percent to $27 million from the same month last year.
       

R.A. Jones & Co. redesigns Criteron carton machines

        R.A. Jones & Co., Covington-based manufacturer of packaging machinery, said it has redesigned its Criterion line of carton machines to permit faster set-up, changeover and clean-up.

        Developed with extensive customer input, Jones said the new Criterion 2000 line includes fewer parts and reduces machine complexity and cost compared to previous models.
       

Manufacturing roundtable can be previewed on Web

        Manufacturing managers attending the roundtable on lean manufacturing next Friday can preview the presentations at www.OperationalExcellence.com, Web site for Midwest Manufacturing Solutions, sponsor.

        More than 100 managers are expected to attend the free morning session which features presentations by Basco Inc. and Fibre Glass-Evercoat at the Gregory Centre in downtown Cincinnati.

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