Page 4 - MetalForming November 2010

Contents November 2010 • Volume 44 — Number 11
Cover Story
20 PMA—
Your Essential Partner
Features
14 Hydraulic Presses Turn Green with Variable-
Frequency Drives 18 Lean Laser Cutting
Tooling Technology
30 Pressure Sensors in Lubrication-Delivery
Systems
Commentaries
Editorial ........................2
Be Like Gates—Never Stop Learning
Brad F. Kuvin
The Business of Metalforming . . . . . . . . . 10
More on Social Media: Blog Basics—Part 2
Michael Bleau
TheScienceofForming ............28
Sulfur and Sheetmetal Forming
Stuart Keeler
Tooling by Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Count Your Blessings
Peter Ulintz
Blackman on Taxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Congress: It’s Time to Use the Tax Laws to Help the Economy, Not Make It Worse Irving L. Blackman
YouandTheLaw .................36
When Your Employee Makes a Safety Rule Mistake Douglas B. M. Ehlke
Metalforming Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Bunkering—Part 6
George Keremedjiev
Departments
News Fronts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 TechUpdate .....................8 SafetyUpdate ...................12 Tooling Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Products .......................38 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 AdIndex.......................41
Serving those who create precision metal products using stamping, fabricating and other value-added processes.
“Managers of successful metalforming shops encourage continuous learning throughout their companies.”
EDITORIAL BRAD F. KUVIN
Be Like Gates—Never Stop Learning
Bill Gates once told Fortune maga- zine that, “at Microsoft, there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top. I’m afraid that’s not quite right.” Instead, he went on to explain, it took the help of numerous other trusted individuals to help realize the company’s success.
In analyzing Gates’ success story, author Evan Carmichael lays out criti- cal lessons that every business owner/manager can apply. My favorite: Never stop learning.
“Every now and then I like to pick up a copy of Time magazine and read every article from beginning to end,” added Gates, “not just the articles that interest me most. That way you can be certain to learn something you didn’t know previously.”
It’s clear to me that managers of suc- cessful metalforming shops understand well what Gates preaches, and encour- age continuous learning throughout their companies. And that’s what Met- alForming and many other products and services offered by the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) are all about. Just ask Bob Clay, CEO of met- alforming company Pridgeon & Clay and PMA’s Chairman for 2011. In an article beginning on page 20 of this issue, Clay shares several examples of how continuous learning has propelled his company to success. Among them:
“PMA’s CEO roundtables (network- ing events) offer particular value...By listening to others shares their experi- ences, I’ve been able to make better, more informed management decisions.”
“George (in-die-electronics expert George Keremedjiev) has been making presentations here since 2004...I’d con- servatively say that our presses are running 25 percent faster, without wrecks, due to
the knowledge picked up from George over the years.”
And, Pridgeon & Clay’s director of quality assurance Cathy Winterhalter adds: “I’ve taken away (from attending PMA Quality Managers Roundtable networking events) ideas from others related to reducing the cost of quality. For example, we’ve created common inspection criteria for each type of product we manufacture...resulting in
tremendous time and cost savings.” This issue of MetalForming offers sev- eral opportunities for metalforming man- agers, engineers, quality professionals, etc. to learn new ideas. For example, in Lean Laser Cutting (beginning on page 18), you’ll learn how utilizing a full array of cut- ting nozzles, rather than just one or two, to handle a range of workpiece alloys and thicknesses results in a tremendous reduc- tion in assist-gas consumption, saving one metalformer $1000/month. And, our Tooling Technology article (beginning on page 30) explains how a relatively simple installation of an inexpensive pressure sensor into a stamping-lubricant delivery system can avoid thousands of dollars in
die-repair costs.
Are you a believer in the value of
continuous education? Keep reading MetalForming, and follow Bob Clay’s lead when he says:
“We make sure that our employees take advantage of opportunities to net- work and learn.”
Editor
bkuvin@pma.org www.pma.org/blog
2 METALFORMING / NOVEMBER 2010
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