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More from Jim Anderton
Why the Germans win
- By Jim Anderton
- Sep 24, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
In a world where manufacturing activity is stagnant or slow-growing globally, Germany is a very unusual case. It’s the leading nation in a European economic basket case and continues to lead in productivity and output. Why? Many commentators have weighed in on this issue and most clearly...
OMAX holds open house event in Seattle
- By Jim Anderton
- Aug 20, 2013
- Fabricating
- Article
OMAX Corporation held an open house event yesterday at the firm's Seattle plant. Several new products were presented, both machinery and software. Modern quality control processes were demonstrated, with Brown & Sharpe CMM equipment and Renishaw probes fed by a statistical part sampling...
By the numbers: Commodity pricing
- By Jim Anderton
- Aug 7, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
The Bank of Canada (BoC) compiles many useful statistics frequently used by economists and market analysts to predict the short-term outlook for the Canadian economy. We’re a resource driven economy, so commodity price indices are more important than in most developed nations. These graphs,...
Slow motion nation
- By Jim Anderton
- Jul 10, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
As Canadians, we’ve been lucky to escape the worst of the global banking-induced recession. We live in a vast resource warehouse, one that has papered over some ugly realities about the way our economy operates. I write this having averaged 11 km/h during my Toronto morning commute. During...
Open for business: Job shops voice guarded optimism in an uncertain market
- By Jim Anderton
- Jul 8, 2013
- Automation and Software
- Article
These are strange times for Canada’s machining, fabricating and manufacturing sectors. Five years after the historic banking meltdown and in the middle of a pan-European recession, some shops are experiencing strong, even record growth while others are struggling. While commodity prices are...
Cross-border shopping: Aluminum
- By Jim Anderton
- Jun 6, 2013
- Metalworking
- Article
Canada is one of the world’s largest producers of alumina and aluminum alloys, so it’s no surprise that we’ve developed a classification system for identifying grades and tempers. Unfortunately, there is no global standardization of nomenclature, so in the frequent situation where...
Precision plating
- By Jim Anderton
- Jun 5, 2013
- Metal Finishing
- Article
Natalia Stephen loves coatings. As president of Mississauga-based Compound Metal Coatings Inc. (CMC), she has taken her engineering metallurgy expertise and developed multiple processes and coatings designed to fight wear and corrosion on metal parts in industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals to...
Safe and secure
- By Jim Anderton
- May 9, 2013
- Fabricating
- Article
In an unassuming, almost anonymous 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Oakville, Ontario, Peter Gauthier is part of a 40-strong team that builds strong boxes. Not just any boxes, but the safes seen in banks everywhere and the massive vaults as well. Access Security Products was founded by...
Another cash grab
- By Jim Anderton
- May 8, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
If you are in this business to make things with machinery and equipment in Ontario, things are changing. Effective September 1st, section 12.3 a of the Professional Engineers Act will be repealed. The section, commonly called the “machinery/equipment exception”, allowed small Canadian...
Mold steel - P20 or not P20?
- By Jim Anderton
- Apr 25, 2013
- Metalworking
- Article
Ask any mold maker most anywhere what’s the most commonly used mold steel and he or she will probably say, “P20” without hesitation. P20 is almost synonymous with injection mold steels, and with good reason. What is P20? The popular material is compositional ly very similar to the aerospace...
By the numbers: Resources up and down
- By Jim Anderton
- Apr 15, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
The Bank of Canada maintains an excellent website with multiple statistical tools to analyze the Canadian economy. The Banks’ commodity price index is a useful way to measure output on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis. The chart below shows the sector-by-sector progress of the resources...
Sergio Marchionne wants in. So do we...
- By Jim Anderton
- Apr 10, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
Few can argue that competition in open markets isn’t the most efficient way to generate economic growth. And it’s not just the political Right who believe it... Marx also wrote about the wealth-generating power of market economies. Whether the fruits of that wealth generation are...
By the numbers: Global machine tool industry signals recovery
- By Jim Anderton
- Mar 25, 2013
- Metalworking
- Blog Post
According to the World Machine Tool Output Consumption Survey conducted by U.S.-based Gardiner Business Media, 2012 saw global machine tool manufacturers leveling off their output, which was down 1 per cent compared to 2011, a major improvement over the 30-plus per cent fall from 2009. The...
Racing to win
- By Jim Anderton
- Mar 22, 2013
- Automation and Software
- Article
By any measure, these have been good times for the auto sector. Despite the Great Recession, aging vehicle fleets, historically low interest rates, and the return of vehicle leasing has released pent-up consumer demand and generated four years of strong sales. That’s great, but going on...
Buying certainty
- By Jim Anderton
- Mar 20, 2013
- Metalworking
- Article
There’s no doubt about it: if you measure something, there’s doubt. That uncertainty, which is part of any measured quantity, from the wavelength of light to a pint of beer, is inherent. If you can’t see it then your measuring instrument simply can’t resolve it....
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