Welcome to the July 2010 Issue of The Cutting Edge

Featured in this month’s issue of The Cutting Edge are recent changes and upcoming events at Wolverine Machine Products including our new Zeiss Contura G2, expansion of our Quality Lab, customer experiences and an upcoming tour of our facility. Also included are details on upcoming industry events, articles on year-to-date machine tool sales and changes in China’s currency and workforce.

To read more about the University Of Michigan’s Solar Car race click here.

Wardjet RX-3013 Water Jet Cutting Table

This month’s featured machine of the month is Wolverine Machine’s Wardjet RX-3013 water jet cutting table with four independent Z carriages. With a working envelope of 156”x 360”x10” the RX-3013 is one of the largest waterjet cutting tables in the Midwest and one of two waterjet cutting tables housed at our facility. This high precision unit has been designed to meet even the largest requirements while holding very tight tolerances. The RX-3013 offers exceptional accuracy of +/- .003”, repeatability of +/- .001” and exhibits no “heat-affected zones”.

Learn More About the RX-3013

“It was a very pleasant visit to Wolverine Machine last week. As I passed the vintage houses on my way to the facility in Holly, Michigan, I was only more intrigued to see the plant on the inside. On the day I visited Wolverine Machine, I was there to have work performed by Wolverine’s waterjet cutting machine. Wolverine was accommodating a rush order that I had and was actually performing the cutting on the material that I had brought while I waited. Talk about service! While I waited I was given a tour by a third generation family member, President of Wolverine Machine Ken Walker. He showed me a variety of products including an inner-race sprag assembly from one of my first assignments 25 years ago.

On the tour I saw departments that ranged from old time screw machines to more modern CNC lathes and milling operations to the very up-to-date climate controlled measurement lab. Everyone at Wolverine Machine was helpful and concerned that my job passed through the Wolverine Machine facility quickly and with the highest quality. It was great doing business with Wolverine Machine and I hope to find more of my parts in their display window in the future.”

-Charles Joseph
Principle Engineer at AM General
June 14, 2010

Let us know about your experience at Wolverine Machine Products

Take a Tour of Wolverine Machine’s Facility

Wolverine Machine is planning a tour of our facility for anyone interested in learning more about our capabilities. Attendees will receive a personalized tour of the plant including your specific areas of interest, conducted by Vice-President Bruce Walker and/or Special Projects Manager Blaine Walker. You will also be able to see our waterjet cutting machine in action as Blaine Walker takes a free hand sketch and creates a complete part in minutes. There will be food, T-shirts and other take home goodies.

Click below to take a short 5 question survey to let us know what time would best fit your schedule. Breakfast or lunch will be included, so don’t miss it!

Click here to attend a tour of Wolverine Machine

Wolverine Machine’s Newest Addition to Gain the Highest Level of Quality 

Wolverine Machine has completed their expansion of the quality measurement lab. In the past two months, construction on the lab expansion has been an ongoing project. The completed lab is now more than double its previous size. The lab was expanded in order to house Wolverine Machine’s new Zeiss Contura G2 CMM. Several other changes to the lab’s layout have been included in the expansion that will improve the efficiency of the lab.

Click here to learn more about our quality measurement lab

Hope Is Not Lost for American Manufacturing

Over the past several months almost every manufacturing article you read has focused on American companies outsourcing their work overseas to reduce costs which in turn has damaged the economy and drastically increased the unemployment rate. This attention to manufacturing has made many business owners worry that American manufacturing is becoming an endangered species and will soon become extinct. A recent article in The New York Times has given a glimmer of hope that China’s increasing strength in manufacturing may begin to level off or possibly decrease.

Click for complete article

Machine Tool Spending Falls in April

The spending on machine tools dropped 15.6 percent from March to April according to The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA). According to AMT, manufacturing technology consumption totaled $222.36 million. This total, reported by businesses involved in The United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) program, was down 15.6 percent from March, though the percentage is up 102.7 percent from April 2009. So far this year the consumption is up 50.6 percent compared to 2009, with a year-to-date total of $783.03 million.

Click for complete article

Study Says Natural Gas Use Likely to Double

Obama’s Strategy to Reverse Manufacturing’s Fall

Once a Key to Recovery, Detroit Adds to Pain

China response 'took Google by surprise'

Ford to Build $450m Plant in Thailand

July 13-15 Intersolar North America

Wolverine Machine featured in Zeiss Newsletter

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We hope that you enjoyed this issue of The Cutting Edge and can use these quality principles within your organization. If you would like to learn more about Wolverine Machine Products, you can visit our website at www.wolverinemachine.com or call directly at 800-397-8446. We look forward to doing business with you!