11 industries reported expansion in February. The Precision Machined Products Industry, a sub industry of Fabricated Metals, serves 7 of these industries showing the greatest recovery.
Here are the sectors that reported expansion that precision machining serves:
Machinery;
Computer & Electronic Products;
Miscellaneous Manufacturing;
Transportation Equipment;
Electrical Equipment;
Appliances & Components;
Fabricated Metal Products;
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in February for the seventh consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 10th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.
The PMI index for February was 56.5 down 1.9 percentage points from January. Because the PMI is above 50, the manufacturing economy is expanding. How can they run out of vanilla? According to ISM steel, stainless steel, and aluminum are increasing in price.
Anecdotal data from our conversations with members confirms the ISM numbers, and points out that the metals named above are both more expensive and in short supply.
You know business is improving when they are out of plain vanilla. Photocredit.
If you have a high incidence and injury rate in your shop.
15,000 workplaces were sent the letter.
Employers receiving the letter are those whose establishments are covered by Federal OSHA and reported either the highest
“Days Away from work,”
” Restricted work “or
” job transfer injury and illness”
-(DART) rate to OSHA in a survey of 2008 injury and illness data.
Heres how the employers were selected: For every 100 full-time workers, these 15,000 employers had 4.5 or more injuries or illnesses which resulted in days away from work, restricted work or job transfer. The national average is 2.0.
The letter encourages employers to consider
Hiring an outside safety and health consultant,
Talking with their insurance carrier, or
Contacting the workers’ compensation agency in their state for advice.
An excellent way for employers with 250 or fewer workers to address safety and health is to ask for assistance from OSHA’s on-site consultation program.
The consultation program is administered by state agencies and operated separately from OSHA’s inspection program. The service is free, and there are no fines even if problems are found.
The letter tells the employer where the OSHA consultation program in that state may be contacted.
Link to OSHA FOIA Letter Page . Photo credit
“Why do the mechanical properties on different shipments of the same size and grade of steel vary so much? ”
To answer this, lets look at grade 1018, a non-free machining grade that we may encounter in our shops. We'll pull it until its two pieces! A cold drawn 1018 steel bar 1″ diameter typically has a Tensile Strength (TS) of 64000 psi. Yield Strength (YS) of 54,000 psi; %Elongation in 2″ (%EL) of 15%; % Reduction of Area (%RA) of 40%. (According to Information Report SAE J 1397, Estimated Mechanical properties and Machinability of Steel Bars,) Note, these are estimated values, not minimums! Your mileage (properties) may vary– here are three reasons why.
The original melt and cast process can affect chemical makeup;
The mechanical properties of cold drawn steel are affected by the amount of cold work;
The final steps of straightening and polishing can relax the steel.
The original melt and cast process can affect chemical makeup. Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) steels are made from a high percentage of new metal, and so have lower levels of residual elements from scrap that could strengthen the material. Also BOF steels tend to run lower levels of nitrogen, which is a ferrite strengthener. So BOF Melt steels tend to be on the low side of mechanical properties like tensile and Yield, and a bit higher ductility (%RA and %Elongation in 2″). The mechanical properties of cold drawn steel are affected by the amount of cold work. This can come about in two different ways: the first way is as the bar size ordered gets smaller, given a standard draft, the percentage of cold work increases. This increase in the percentage of cold work increases the mechanical properties of Tensile and Yield Strength and can decrease the ductility somewhat. The second way can be when different vendors use a different “drafting practice” resulting in a different amount of cold work to make the same size. Typical draft may be to use hot roll sized 1/16th” over the final size for drawing. Another vendor may choose 3/32″ oversize, and in rare cases a company my use 1/8″ to assure exceeding, not just meeting, minimum Yield Strength. The final steps of straightening and polishing can relax the steel. The amount of cold work done in straightening the bars can relax the steel because the force is applied transverse to the original drawing. So a supplier using a two roll straightener, all other things being equal, may produce bars with a different final set of properties than one using a train of planishing discs to get the bar commercially straight. So what values could you expect to encounter in grade 1018 steel when looking at all of these effects?
We’ve seen 3/8″ 1018 with Tensile Strength (TS) in the high 80,000’s; Yield Strength (YS) in the high 70,000’s.%EL in 2″ as high as 26;%RA as high as 65.
And in 4″ rd 1018, TS as low as 58,000psi; YS of about 42,000 psi; %EL in 2″ of 12%; % RA of 35%. The process path generally can explain the properties received. And why those mechanical properties that you receive are sometimes so far from what you expect.
Photo credit: A-Lab Dayton Ohio
Guest Post by Jeff Wiltsie, President, Vanamatic Company The Climate Change Debate
Greenhouse Gases – CO2
Fossil Fuels
Deforestation
Chemical Fertilizers
Urbanization
Solar Flares
Sun Spots
Is Science on the Right Path? A recent study by researchers at Duke University and the Army Research Office has found new evidence of a link between solar flare activity and the earth’s temperature. Solar Flares and Sun Spots
Habibullo Abdusamatov, head of the space research laboratory at the St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Observatory, said global warming stems from an increase in the sun’s activity.
“Global warming results not from the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but from an unusually high level of solar radiation and a lengthy – almost throughout the last century – growth in its intensity,”
“Instead of professed global warming, the Earth will be facing a slow decrease in temperatures in 2012-2015. The gradually falling amounts of solar energy, expected to reach their bottom level by 2040, will inevitably lead to a deep freeze around 2055-2060,” he said, adding that this period of global freeze will last some 50 years, after which the temperatures will go up again. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070115/59078992.html The Politics of Climate Change
Following Excerpts from: Geocraft
Of the 186 billion tons of carbon from CO2 that enter earth’s atmosphere each year from all sources, only 6 billion tons (3.2%) are from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come from biologic activity in earth’s oceans and another 90 billion tons from such sources as volcanoes and decaying land plants. What do politicians and global warming advocates say? Is it science or politics? “In the United States…we have to first convince the American People and the Congress that the climate problem is real.” President Bill Clinton in a 1997 address to the United Nations Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think there’s a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are… FormerVice President Al Gore in an Interview with Grist Magazine May 9, 2006 “We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” Stephen Schneider (leading advocate of the global warming theory in interview for Discover magazine, Oct 1989)
“Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.” Tim Wirth, while U.S. Senator, Colorado.
“No matter if the science is all phony; there are collateral environmental benefits…. Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.” Christine Stewart, former Minister of the Environment of Canada quote from the Calgary Herald, 1999 160,000 Years of Ice
Except for two brief interglacial episodes, one peaking about 125,000 years ago (Eemian Interglacial), and the other beginning about 18,000 years ago (Present Interglacial), the Earth has been under siege of ice for the last 160,000 years.Graph Compiled by R.S. Bradley and J.A. Eddy based on J. Jouzel et al., Nature vol. 329. pp. 403-408, 1987 and published in EarthQuest, vol. 5, no. 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record Hottest Period in Human History – 4000 Years Ago
The idea that man-made pollution is responsible for global warming is not supported by historical fact. The period known as the Holocene Maximum is a good example– so-named because it was the hottest period in human history. The interesting thing is this period occurred approximately 7500 to 4000 years B.P. (before present)– long before humans invented industrial pollution. Graph Compiled by R.S. Bradley and J.A. Eddy based on J.T. Houghton et al., Climate Change: The IPCC Assessment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990 and published in EarthQuest, vo. 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record Earth Heating and Cooling Cycles
Periods of Earth warming and cooling occur in cycles. This is well understood, as is the fact that small-scale cycles of about 40 years exist within larger-scale cycles of 400 years, which in turn exist inside still larger scale cycles of 20,000 years, and so on. Graph Example of regional variations in surface air temperature for the last 1000 years, estimated from a variety of sources, including temperature-sensitive tree growth indices and written records of various kinds, largely from western Europe and eastern North America. Shown are changes in regional temperature in ° C, from the baseline value for 1900. Compiled by R. S. Bradley and J. A. Eddy based on J. T. Houghton et al., Climate Change: The IPCC Assessment, Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge, 1990 and published in EarthQuest, vol 5, no 1, 1991. Courtesy of Thomas Crowley, Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record Adapt to Change Maintains British Scientist Jane Francis
“What we are seeing really is just another interglacial phase within our big icehouse climate.” Dismissing political calls for a global effort to reverse climate change, she said, “It’s really farcical because the climate has been changing constantly… What we should do is be more aware of the fact that it is changing and that we should be ready to adapt to the change.”
Sometimes, our eyes can help us see what is really going on, no matter what the talking heads in the media try to tell us.
On this first map, a satelite image of the Korean peninsula, the light indicates urban and economic activity as evidenced by electric lights in South Korea. The absence of light at the top of the peninsula indicates an apparent lack of economic and industrial activity in North Korea.
Link: Korean Peninsula
On this map of unemployment rates by county, again darkness indicates lack of economic activity.
Here is the interactive version posted on YouTube:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J28tLOpzfpA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0] Click here to see this interactive map show the growth of unemployment by county from Jan 2007 to January 2010. Sometimes, it’s easier to just show what you mean.
