Current pulse

Helping businesses turn concepts into reality

Officials from The Velocity Group have launched a new business designed to provide clients with a single-source solution for turning concepts into reality.

A strategic alliance of design, engineering, supply chain, project management, and ISO-certified lean manufacturing organizations united under common ownership, The Velocity Group offers nearly seven decades of organizational experience with engineers backed by state-of-the-art technology and processes.

The Velocity Group offers to go from concept to full production in as little as six to nine months versus the 20- to 24-month time-frame that businesses usually receive from offshore firms, which could translate into an extra year and a half of profits for clients.

In addition to speed, clients also enjoy convenience as they deal with one project manager for all services instead of having to keep track and work with multiple entities. www.velocityfast.com

Technology partnership and development co-op

Kennametal Inc. and Haimer GmbH have agreed to a technology partnership and development cooperation for modular cutting tool systems.

“This agreement is a perfect fit because it illustrates both Haimer and Kennametal as leaders in high-end innovative technologies for world manufacturing,” states Kennametal Chairman, President, and CEO, Carlos Cardoso.

The companies debuted the modular interface DUO-LOCK for carbide cutting tool heads at IMTS 2014. They combined their toolholding and carbide knowledge to provide solutions for high performance milling applications with a modular system. Like SAFE-LOCK, the DUO-LOCK system will be available as a license to high-end cutting tool companies to establish a compatible, high-performance modular end mill system.

Haimer and Kennametal developed DUO-LOCK, a rigid and precise interface that is virtually unbreakable.

Colleen Cordova, vice president industrial marketing at Kennametal adds, “Haimer and Kennametal have been able to create a modular interface based on maximum stability that allows the user to make full use of the carbide tool potential.”

The DUO-LOCK technology provides stability, load capacity, and high runout precision based on a thread design with a proprietary double cone connection and an additional third supporting area in the back of the interface.

Doug Ewald, director product management system tooling at Kennametal says, “The system guarantees 5µm runout accuracy and a Z accuracy of 10µm, which will eliminate most of the expensive presetting processes.”

The partners are currently in discussions with additional leading cutting tool companies to offer customers multiple sources of different manufacturers with one compatible interface. www.kennametal.com; www.haimer-usa.com