It’d be hard to miss unless you’ve been residing under a large rock for a bit, but there have been few buzz-words zipping around today’s most commonly utilized lexicon…For instance INNOVATION. It was all over IMTS. It’s used regularly in virtually every political platform speech, all over the media (and the media is all over), and in actual R&D based information. So how are you innovative? Are you just throwing around the word because the cool kids are doing it? Or are you employing it through your sales and marketing, production, R&D, employee management?

A popular one in political and media culture of late has been TRANSPARENCY.  Huffington Post even has an entire page dedicated to it. Transparency can be spoken of in economics, and the need for a market’s transparency: what products, services or capital assets are available, what price, and where. Are you able to answer these questions about your product?

Another one that crosses the boundaries into the world of being environmentally friendly is SUSTAINABILITY. Wikipedia defines it as the capacity of endure. Whether it is a new technology, management techniques or business development, how are you creating a sustainable business environment?

Blog post written by Federico Sciammarella PhD, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Dept., College and Engineering and Engineer Technology, Northern Illinois University

I really enjoyed visiting the Emerging Technology Center as well as the Advanced Manufacturing Center at IMTS; it is wonderful to see how the next generation of machines and processes are coming of life and being used. There was one topic I would have liked to see more about and is that of Laser Assisted Machining, probably because that is part of my current research focus. What is laser assisted machining? Simply put, a laser is used to preheat an often hard material like ceramics to soften it for better machinability. Rather than using traditional methods like diamond grinding which can be from 70% to 90% of the total component cost, last assisted machining can actually bring costs down.

Did you know that the demand for advanced ceramics in the United States is forecasted to increase 4.0 percent per year to over $12 in 2012? As estimated by this new industry study, released in December of 2008, the growth of the advanced ceramics market is highly depended on new applications and more cost effective production. Ceramics hold many important properties such as high strength to weight ratio, good wear and corrosion resistance, chemical stability, and high-temperature strength. These properties especially allow for the use of advanced ceramics in engine components such as; bearings, rotors, cam roller followers, and exhaust valves where high-temperature strength, low density, and reduced wear are very important.

Obviously traditional methods (pardon the pun) just won't "cut it". New technologies like laser assisted machining could provide the necessary boost to this market and also bring more advanced manufacturing into the American economy. Exciting news this week in the area of laser assisted machining of ceramics was generated by Reliance Tool and MAnufacturing Co. (Reliance), Elgin, IL and Northern Illinois University (NIU), DeKalb, IL. Team members successfully machined standard 1-5/8 x 20 threads on a 2-inch OD silicon nitride tube. Total thread cutting time was approximately 3-minutes. For further information, contact Richard Roberts at Reliance Tool, rroberts@reliancetool.com; or Joe Santner at Northern Illinois University, jsantner@niu.edu.

More importantly I cannot wair to see what will be the next new big and best topic at IMTS 2012...only time will tell.