Month: April 2023
Published April 10, 2023
Published April 1, 2023
Making parts is one thing. Making sure the parts are perfect is another. e quality department ensures that parts are made to spec, free of burrs and defects, and are properly cleaned. Anisa Ali is the continuous quality improvement (CQI) lead inspector at Pioneer Service Inc. in Chicago, Illinois. Lisa Carrothers is the quality assurance manager at H&R Screw Machine Products Inc. in Reed City, Michigan. Both women share their journey to manufacturing.
Anisa Ali’s Journey
Anisa started her career working at a laundromat, however, Pioneer Service owner, Aneesa Muthana, offered her a part-time position. Anisa enjoyed learning the steps in shipping, inspecting parts and understanding the process of precision machining. Eventually, Anisa became a full-time employee and earned her position as the CQI lead inspector. She is currently training to become a quality inspector, not only visually but also working with technology.
Anisa enjoys the quality department and is eager to make sure parts are shipped correctly and cleanly. She is always looking to learn new skills and loves being involved with continuous improvement. She takes pride in her work. “I love when I am able to identify problems that may occur which reduces the amount of potential errors,” Anisa says. “I know that the parts that ship to our customers are important to many industries. I love that we make a difference.”
Lisa Carrothers’ Journey
Lisa started her career as a waitress and entered manufacturing at a facility that produced plastic-injected parts. She was then hired at another facility as a shift leader. Soon after that facility closed, Lisa took a temporary position at H&R Screw Machine Products. In 1997, she was hired full time and worked in the secondary department. Five years later, she was asked to join the shipping department and, after a short time, was promoted to the shipping manager. During this time, she took some business courses in college thinking it would advance her career; however, it was Tom Halladay, co-owner of H&R Screw Machine Products, who gave her a chance. He was looking for a quality manager and asked Lisa.
Lisa had concerns that she didn’t have quality experience and Tom chuckled and replied, “What do you think you’ve been doing the last 17 years?” With that confidence boost, Lisa took the position and loves it. Lisa attends PMPA National Technical Conferences to further her skill set and network. She is also a member and former chair on the PMPA Quality Committee. She loves that she is seeing more and more women at PMPA events and serving on committees.
Advice to Women (or Anyone) Seeking a Career in Manufacturing
Anisa’s advice to those seeking a career in manufacturing is “Keep in mind that you are capable and can be as talented as anyone else in manufacturing. If your passion is manufacturing, there’s nothing that can stop you other than yourself. Find mentors that will help you in achieving your goal.” Anisa adds, “Be yourself. Don’t try to change yourself in order to fit in. Know your worth. Although it is a male-dominated industry, know that you’re making a difference and that many women have built successful careers in manufacturing.
Lisa’s advice to those seeking a career in manufacturing is “Don’t give up, Try! Try! Try! There are many areas in manufacturing today. Technology is playing a huge role in quality. Just a few years ago it was rare for a small company
to own a CMM or Vision system. We need engineers, setup technicians, programmers, machinists and the list goes on and on. Considering a career in manufacturing usually involves no college courses and most companies are willing to train you as H&R Screw was willing to train me.”
Carli Kistler-Miller, MBA has over 25 years of experience with
communications, event/meeting planning, marketing, writing and
operations. Email: gro.apmp@rellimc — Website: pmpa.org.
Published April 1, 2023
Fabricated Metal Products Manufacturing is a subsector of manufacturing that makes critical goods from metal components.
Precision Turned Products Manufacturing is a subsector of fabricated metal product manufacturing that makes the components that MAKE IT WORK!
Annual Economic Output
Ohio Manufacturing
NAICS 31-33
$114,760,000,000
Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
NAICS 332
$28,768,890,000
Precision Turned Product Manufacturing
NACIS 332721
$1,930,688,000
OHIO MANUFACTURING ACCOUNTS FOR
Manufacturing Is Productivity –16.2% of Ohio’s total output (GDP)
Manufacturing Builds Businesses – 12,371 manufacturing establishments are in the state of Ohio. Ohio ranks second nationally in the total number of new site selections for manufacturing over the past nine years.
Manufacturing Creates Jobs – 12.22% of all Ohio employees are in the manufacturing sector. (660,000 employees)
Manufacturing Earns Export Dollars – Ohio manufactured goods exports were valued at $51 Billion.
Manufacturing produces for OHIO!
Manufacturing produces careers in Ohio that are profitable.
Published April 1, 2023
How Are Bars Centerless Ground?
In centerless grinding machines, a prepared bar is supported over its length and fed into a gap between an abrasive (grinding) wheel and another rubber wheel which presses the bar into the abrasive wheel and, as it spins the bar, the bar advances forward. The amount of stock removal is determined by the force applied by the rubber wheel. Multiple passes may be needed to achieve the final size, and a final pass may take a minimum amount of removal.
Why Centerless Bar Grinding?
Grinding — in particular, centerless bar grinding — is employed when very close tolerances or a very smooth surface finish is needed for an application. There are other reasons to choose precision ground bars in our shops. Precision ground bars are specified in ASTM A 108 Steel Bar, Carbon and Alloy, Cold-Finished. Size tolerances for Level 2 and Level 3 cold-finished round bars cold drawn, ground and polished, or turned, ground and polished can be found in Table A1.3 of ASTM A108. Tolerances are based on bar diameter and are unilateral (to the minus only) from the specified size. Out-of-roundness in these products is “as agreed” between supplier and customer. Note: Unlike Level 1 cold-finished alloy steel bars, cold drawn or turned and polished, the tolerance for centerless ground bars is not determined in part by carbon content or prior thermal treatments.
The customer requires a demanding surface finish (Ra).
For Level 1 ground and polished, an (Ra) of 40 microinches max may be specified. For Level 2, an (Ra) max of 30 microinches is specifiable, according to Table A 1.7; for Level 3, a 20 microinches max (Ra) is given. Note: Special
surface (Ra) restrictions must be agreed upon at time of inquiry — even more restrictive finishes may be available,
depending upon additional passes or processes being employed.
Depending on the nominal diameter — for example 1 inch — the size tolerance of the Level 3 ground bar could be as little as 0.0008″ compared to a Level 2 tolerance of just 0.001″. For carbon grades, supplied as cut lengths, the Level 1 tolerance as cold drawn or turned and polished could range from 0.002 to 0.005 inches, all tolerance minus depending on diameter. For this example, we are using under 1-1/2″. For alloy grades, Level 1 (cold drawn only or turned and polished) supplied as cut lengths, the tolerance could range from 0.003″ for low carbon grades up to as high as 0.006″ for maximum of carbon range over 0.55%, regardless of stress relief or annealing prior or after cold finishing, as well as all carbon levels quench and tempered or normalized and tempered. (All tolerance is minus.) The maximum allowable departure from roundness (out of round or maximum ovality) is as agreed between the supplier and the customer. For very challenging parts, if the OD of the bar is going to be used in the customer’s finished part, the centerless grinding process can deliver the tightest dimensional compliance of all available cold finishing processes.
The customer’s equipment requires high precision feedstock.
Certain types of machining processes can benefit greatly from utilizing precision ground barstock, such as CNC Swiss-type screw machining. In these instances, there are a myriad reasons for requiring ground material not detailed in this article..
It adds additional assurance the material is seam-free.
Grinding and polishing takes a nal additional stock removal that can help ensure that the material is seamfree (surface imperfection free.) is can be part of the normal stock removal calculation or can be additional to the removal taken prior to the grinding process to provide additional assurance. Consult with your supplier to understand the stock removal and its warranty regarding surface imperfections.
Length tolerances are held to a tighter range.
(All tolerance is plus for length.) For Level 2 and Level 3, cold finished steel bar is held to tighter range (1 inch for Level 2; half an inch for Level 3, compared to 2 inches for Level 1 product.)
Material may be in stock available for prompt delivery.
Finally, a less important — but often overlooked factor — is that the bar grinder may actually have material in stock available for prompt delivery. Sometimes the quantity on hand may be sufficient for a small job in our shops. The
advantage of this factor, though, is attributable more to the availability/stocking position than to any technical
attributes imparted by the precision grinding. Often, the ground finish and precision may be overkill for a job, but the only material that can be found is available at the bar grinder. The reasons arguing against the use of precision ground barstock include higher cost per pound than other cold-finished steel bar products, and perishability of finish. The higher cost of precision ground bars is not just because of the cost of the grinding operation, it is also attributable to the yield
loss of material removed during the grinding process. The fine finish imparted by the centerless grinding operation can be defeated by mishandling — scratches, dings and other abrasions can render the material unit for the most demanding
applications. Handle with care! There are a number of reasons for choosing centerless ground barstock to ensure both shop productivity and that your process delivers the highest quality to your customers.
Miles Free III is the PMPA Director of Industry Affairs with over 50 years of experience in the areas of manufacturing, quality and steelmaking. Miles’ podcast is at pmpa.org/podcast. Email Miles
PMPA would like to thank everyone who came out to support the President’s Roundtable. Also a special thanks to Accurounds, Kinefac and Swissturn/ USA.
Published April 3, 2023