Mechanized Marvels

On the floor of the Chicago Amphitheater one night last week, a machinist pushed a button on a large lathe, then stood back, hands in pockets. In seconds, the automatic lathe fed itself a piece of roughly shaped metal, turned it into a stator (the stationary part of an electric motor), inspected it to make sure it was perfect, swept the waste metal into a receptacle, then started work to make another part. If the finished part had not been perfect, the lathe would have discarded it and made the proper corrections o make sure the next part was exactly to specifications.

The $46,000 lathe, made by Jones & Lamson of Springfield, Vt., was just one of the mechanical wonders that 307 companies spread over the 18-acre amphitheater for the first Machine Tool Show in eight years. For many of the 100,000 businessmen who crowded into the show the new machine tools were must purchases, if their companies are to keep costs down in the face of rising material prices and wages. Said William Rutz, chairman of he National Machine Tool Builders' Association's show committee: the exhibits constitute a gigantic demonstration of now to increase productivity."

Buyers seemed unconcerned that prices were about 20% above previous models, the new machines often gave many times 20% more production. For example a ten-ton machine built by Lapointe Ma-:hine Tool Co. of Hudson, Mass, can turn out Ford connecting rods at a 1,200-an-hour clip, more than twice the speed of earlier machines. An automatic screwdriver made by Pneuma-Serve, Inc., Cleveland, which shoots screws into position and then drives them home, stepped up production 800% in one operation at the New York Progressive Wood Heel Co. of Brooklyn.

Other machines showed what the automatic factory of the future will be like with rows of metal monsters turning raw materials into finished products. One example was a machine that grinds both the inside and outside of a valve, grooves it as well. Built by Landis Machine Co. of Waynesboro, Pa., the machine has gauges that measure the tolerance after each step m the operation, automatically toss aside faulty valves and readjust the machine to the proper dimensions. Cost -$3,0,000.

Among the mechanized marvels: P:A 70-ton monster built by Norton Co. of Worcester, Mass., which automatically moves a crankshaft from a grinding operation to drilling and milling and finally ejects it a job that had previously needed five machines. Saving in labor costs alone can estimated $38,000 a year on a two-shift operation.

P:A driller that cuts the hardest metal--e.g., tungsten carbide--without touching it. Made by Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., the cutting edge is a stream of electrons a sort of manmade lightning. P:A lathe with a mechanical brain, which computes the correct cutting speed for each job. Its makers, Monarch Machine Tool Co. of Sidney, Ohio, estimate that the brain alone can increase production 25% P:A Cleveland Tapping Machine Co device that cuts threads on iron pipe fittings at the rate of 85 feet a minute, producing 1,480 fittings an hour, compared to the previous standard of 350 an hour.

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