The transportation of Canadian crude oil is all over the news these days, and for all the wrong reasons. Deadly tanker accidents on rail lines and the ongoing controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline for environmental reasons are driving a wedge in public opinion...

So much has been written and broadcast about the Keystone XL pipeline project that it’s hard to avoid another repetitious rehash of the issues. I won’t, but instead I’m going to argue that the project should be abandoned, but not for the reasons the mass...

With multiple turning and milling axes plus in machine tool handling capability with dozens of tools available, it’s no surprise that the next frontier in high productivity milling and turning is full system automation. Pallet changers and pick-and-place robotics are...

When it comes to sourcing new equipment for Canada’s armed forces this year, finding a coherent strategy from National Defence, the federal government or from industry is close to impossible. Over land, on the sea and in the air, deciding what the country needs to defend itself has never been...

Steel sheet and plate seems like a commodity business to many fabricators, but in Georgetown, Ontario, north-west of Toronto, Xtreme Steel & Profiles attacks the multiple problems of low and medium volume part making with a mass-production mindset. Occupying 27,000 square feet of high-bay with...

Laser cutting is different from old-school oxy-fuel processes in that cutting is accomplished by focusing energy in a tiny spot to cause localized melting of the workpiece, then blowing the molten metal out of the kerf. It’s a physical process, unlike oxy-fuel which uses heat and oxygen to...

Steels used in the low temperature range — down to –196 °C, face a major performance challenge. To date, austenitic steels have been used. However because of their low yield strength, these are subject  to the risk of early deformation and must therefore...

With the popularity of Six Sigma management principles, it’s common to find metalworking industry professionals, even quality professionals, who don’t know that the lowercase Greek symbol sigma is actually at the core of all modern quality processes. We know it’s...

Pierre Berton wasn’t an economist, but in telling the early history of Canada he inadvertently revealed how important transportation was to the country. From the search for the Northwest Passage to the building of the transcontinental railroad, the economic imperative...

Religion has been a fundamental method of social and cultural organization ever since early hominids painted the walls of caves, but regardless of your opinion on Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, it’s a major influence on most of the world’s population....

It’s still called “3D printing” in the media, but knowledgeable industry insiders are taking additive manufacturing across traditional design and material constraints to create services that can do much more than simply reverse engineer simple arts. Canadian Metalworking...

Ask most Canadians about Sudbury, Ontario and they’ll usually tell you about mining, a treeless moonscape, smoke-belching smelters and the iconic Big Nickel. While the Big Nickel is still there, most of those negative impressions of the city are decades old. Sudbury is in fact a clean,...

As editor of Canadian Metalworking I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to visit mold, tool and die shops across the country. It’s a rare opportunity; like many industries metalworking tends to be compartmentalized, like silos, with each subsector understanding its own market but...

There’s an old adage that says that it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with what you have that matters. A case in point is Fort Erie, Ontario-based Aero Safe Technologies, where careful application of appropriate technology, a strong workforce and a simple, robust management...