Editorial

 Last year, Gorenje’s subsidiary company Gorenje Orodjarna has carried out a massive technological renovation of their manufacturing operations. They invested in three new machines – a high-speed 3-axis vertical CNC-machining center, a wire-EDM machine and a 5-axis vertical CNC-machining center. The resulting competitiveness boost is seen in 8-percent productivity increase from 2012 and the costs of outsourcing sunk by half compared to 2011. The renovated manufacturing equipment will help Gorenje Orodjarna cut new deals, penetrating the aerospace industry included. The total value of investment in new machinery was in excess of 900,000 €.   

 Magnets are an indispensable part of our everyday life. Scratch magnets and forget about many electronic devices, as well as modern communication. In a time when some 50 magnets can be found in an average household, the fact that the largest European magnet factory is operating in Ljubljana deserves all due respect. The company Magneti Ljubljana builds on 62 years of tradition, developing new solutions with optimism and extending the magnet manufacturing operations to new and promising fields.   

 In order to design an energy-efficient machine tool, one has to take a look at the machine and its environment under a magnifying glass, find the main consumers and then start turning the dials. This principle is valid both for hydraulics and pneumatics, and energy savings are also achieved by choosing the right control and drives.
The actual series of Fanuc's high-end CNC-systems 30i/31i/32i offers special functions which provide for a transparent overview of energy consumption and pave the way to efficient machining. The Energy Monitoring function enables optimal axis setting, taking into the account the energy spent as well as precise control over energy consumption and recovery for all axes during the machining. Also available for monitoring and calculation are the values for peripheral systems (such as the cutting fluid delivery system). 

 The challenge was to create a robust and flexible testing solution for determining the level of exhaust system vibrations on large commercial trucks while driving on the highway. A high-performance, robust and autonomous NI cDAQ-9139 system, NI C series module, and data capture and processing iTest System software, developed inside the LabVIEW graphical user interface, were used to create a high-performance and portable solution for testing the exhaust systems on large trucks. The solution offers a wireless interface with the autonomous NI CompactDAQ system, enabling the operator remote control and management of integrated data capture and storage systems.   

 Making vehicles safer, more environmentally friendly and more cost-effective is the stated aim of Behr. Now the Stuttgart-based company has turned to ENGEL foammelt to reduce the weight of its automobile components and improve the repeatability of manufacturing.
Behr GmbH & Co. KG specialises in air conditioning for vehicles and engine cooling. With numerous plastic components injection moulded using more than 100 injection moulding machines around the world, the company’s vertical range of manufacture is high. ENGEL AUSTRIA offers complete turnkey systems with integrated foam units through its cooperation with Trexel of Wilmington, Massachusetts, the company that invented MuCell technology. 

 Multi-functional housing components for sensors in automobiles are the automotive segment in which the Austrian family-owned company Promotech, based in Schalchen near Mattighofen, specializes. One example is a combined rain, light and moisture sensor. The top part of its housing with a diameter of just 33 mm incorporates seven infrared rain detectors and two lenses to measure the ambient light level. A connection plug with insertion-molded metal contacts is an additional component integrated in the housing. A vertical 3-component injection molding machine from Wittmann Battenfeld with an ultra-compact configuration of the injection aggregates is used to produce this part. 

 Matjaž Lindič MSc. is employed at the Slovenian Institute of Quality and Metrology. He is the head of the Metrology Department, the holder of national measurement standards of electric quantities and of time and frequency. While the former Slovenian standard is one of the most complex to maintain, the latter is the most precise one. Vesna Vilčnik 

 Last year has been pretty harsh for the ICT industry. What are the forecasts of business analysts for 2013 and later years? Which emerging technologies will influence our life and work?
The media and the analysts recently received preliminary assessments from the leading business analysts IDC and Gartner about the world ICT market for 2012, as well as the forecasts for 2013. The final reports and forecasts will be delivered end of February, but it is safe to assume that they will not stray far from the preliminary data. Many other assessments from the two companies are helpful for analysing narrow segments of the ICT market.   

 In December, the Frankfurt fairgrounds hosted the three-day HP Discover 2012 event, focusing on information optimization, converged storage, hybrid computer environments and above all on more efficient commercialization of ideas. The event has attracted nearly 10,000 participants from 100 European, Near East and African countries (EMEA). Hewlett-Packard presented the latest products, solutions and services to the partners, customers and the press. There were many introductory lectures, more than 50 workshops and 355 seminars on three floors of the gigantic hall 3 at Messe Frankfurt. Informacije (.pdf 899KB) 

 Orange County Choppers has set the standard in custom chopper design. From gas tanks to fenders, handlebars to carburettors, OCC has raised the bar among bike builders to take design to new levels.
Paul Teutul, Sr., metalworker by trade and founder of Orange County Choppers, Inc., first began his business of building custom choppers out of the basement of his home in Montgomery, NY. With the creative help and following of his oldest son, Paul Jr., the two were soon on their way to the top with the success of Paul Sr.'s first bike, "True Blue" at Daytona Biketoberfest in 1999. From that point on, Paul Sr. knew he had something and established Orange County Choppers, Inc. that same year. 

 In its made-to-order production of specialist medical technology components and kits, Innovations Medical relies on daily production of parts. It is able to meet this requirement thanks to two CNC 5-axis high-performance machining centers, which are fed by a robot system from the workpiece/pallet magazine.
When it comes to precision mechanical manufacturing, Innovations Medical lives up to the tradition of the medical technology crafts that abound in the region around Tuttlingen/Heuburg. Innovative products and constant expansion of the company's product range have contributed to around 8000 individual articles being listed under surgical instruments and around 9000 more in the other business areas of implants and sterile containers. Since it possesses the expertise and quality capabilities in house, Innovations Medical manufactures most of these items itself, in industrial single-piece and batch manufacturing processes with around 65 qualified employees working at two sites in Tuttlingen and another in Steg in Switzerland.