CMMs, NAFTA and other ruminations

While preparing this issue of MICROmanufacturing, I was exposed to a bootful of interesting stories and technologies pertaining to manufacturing. Some relate to this issue. Some don’t. Following is a “best-of-the-boot” sampler:

AM adds up for AMT. The association that produces North America’s largest machine tool show, IMTS, is reaching out to the additive-manufacturing (AM) community. In a mid-September statement, AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology announced plans to acquire an AM-focused magazine and related assets. This is a forward-looking step for an association whose roots have been deeply sunk in subtractive-manufacturing soil for nearly 110 years.

Probing question. A lot of energy is spent developing coordinate-measuring-machine probes small enough to measure microparts on CMMs designed for macroscale components. (See Measurement Matters). Why, I’ve often wondered, doesn’t someone design a micro-specific CMM, one with a smaller work envelope? A European consortium says it has developed such a product. The TriNano micro-CMM’s work envelope reportedly is designed for parts that “fit in a matchbox.” (See Tech News.)

It’s cold outside. I spoke in September with the owner of a small machine shop. He’s owned the business 35 years and had done quite well—until 2009. Then “things started to dry up.” He found himself out making cold calls, trying to sell his shop’s services. That’s a tough gig for a 60-year-old trained as an engineer, not a salesman. He’s mulling hiring a full-time salesperson. His dilemma: The shop doesn’t generate enough sales to warrant hiring a salesperson; sales are insufficient because the shop doesn’t employ a salesperson. Every small-to-medium-size company confronts similar challenges. What to do? My advice: Make a plan. Immediately. Move forward today, no matter how small the step. Don’t mull. Stasis is the swiftest way to kill a business.

No chip off the old block. The Wyss Institute at Harvard University is breathing life into microfluidic devices. The subject of this issue’s Last Word column, the institute is developing microdevices that one day may replace animals and humans used for drug and toxicology testing. So far, Wyss researchers have devised a lung-on-a-chip and are developing chips for the kidney, gut, heart and spleen. The goal is to produce a human-on-a-chip. (How about a teenager-who-cleans-his-room-on-a-chip?)

Cue ‘sucking sound.’ The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade agreement being negotiated among the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and five other countries. The negotiators hope to draft a final agreement in November. TPP critics liken it to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot famously predicted would create “a giant sucking sound” as jobs left America and gushed into Mexico. A report published in May 2011 by the Economic Policy Institute states that in NAFTA’s first 16 years, “U.S. trade deficits with Mexico, totaling $97.2 billion, had displaced 682,900 U.S. jobs.” As for the future effects of the TPP, I’ll be sitting quietly in a big chair, listening for the rushing sound of rapidly moving air.

On the matter of U.S. jobs, specifically manufacturing jobs, I’ll sign off with a great quote that appeared in a 2009 issue of MICROmanufacturing. The speaker, who heads a shop that makes prototypes of eye-surgery instruments, said: “Micromanufacturing is an area where the U.S. can become a world leader. You don’t need a lot of people to micromanufacture. Labor doesn’t make it any cheaper. It’s a great opportunity for those who are smart enough … to develop the best techniques and technologies to produce [microdevices].” µ

Don Nelson Publisher MICROmanufacturing Telephone: (847) 714-0173 E-mail: [EMAIL="dnelson@jwr.com"]dnelson@jwr.com[/EMAIL]