While the rubber manufacturing industry has grown over 30% in the last five years, overall profitability is taking a massive hit. The industry as a whole is producing more than its customers’ demand, which has resulted in a 21.8% drop in rubber prices in the span of only six months. In September alone, month-over-month prices dropped 11.1%.
The table below shows the price of rubber per pound from May to October 2014:
In the last year, massive security breaches compromising credit and debit card information have created a wave of new demand in the plastics manufacturing industry. Across just two large retailers – Target and The Home Depot – 96 million credit cards needed to be replaced. And one security breach on Black Friday led to demand for 40 million cards at once.
IBISWorld released its Tire Manufacturing market research report in July, unveiling its latest findings in the sector heavily tied to the rubber manufacturing industry. With roughly 31% growth over the last five years and the increasing prevalence of fuel-efficient tires and new innovations, your production efficiency and quality must meet the needs of your customers for you to succeed.
If you’re going to debate the merits of rebuilding your roll grinder versus relying on the expertise of a precision grinding company, it’s best to keep the conversation focused on the expense-related side of things.
This isn’t because operational and production efficiency aren’t important. In fact, they’re extremely important and have a huge impact on your bottom line. It’s because the efficiency comparison between using an in-house roll grinder and outsourcing to a roll grinding expert is like comparing the benefits of using a butter knife versus a steak knife to cut into a juicy filet mignon.
Electric turbines. Gas turbines. Water turbines. Wind turbines. Regardless of how your shaft or turbine is powered, it’s managing a substantial load. As the years go by, having proper shaft and turbine repair and maintenance becomes more and more imperative.
Shaft and turbine maintenance isn’t just applicable to companies in power generation. Manufacturers that generate on-site electricity to power their plants and manufacturing processes also stand to lose from improper turbine repair and maintenance.
Regardless of industry, it’s incredibly important to be mindful of how your equipment is functioning and performing. From your manufacturing and production efficiency to your profitability, smoothly functioning shafts and turbines have a big impact on your operation.
What does a properly maintained shaft or turbine help you accomplish?
From an operational standpoint, there is much less risk of downtime from restorative servicing and manufacturing interruptions. From a productivity perspective, your power generation station, compressor or pumps operate at peak efficiency. And last – but certainly not least – from a profitability outlook, you’re reducing the expense of overtaxing poorly serviced shafts or turbines.
In PRG’s last blog post, we defined CNC systems and outlined how they’re used in precision grinding and other manufacturing processes. Roll grinding benefits from computer numerical control in a number of ways.
The importance of precision grinding for your operations cannot be overstated. Today is the day you start to comprehend the effect that perfect rolls have on your manufacturing efficiency. 
Manufacturing efficiency and quality are tied directly to the roundness, concentricity and smoothness of your rolls. From consistent caliper to the overall quality of your product, precision roll grinding is necessary to eliminate major quality deterioration.More and more manufacturers are switching from manual to CNC grinders. With better lead time and productivity, hands-off programming, higher accuracy and tighter tolerances, automated CNC grinding is quickly becoming a no-brainer for production efficiency.
WHAT IS CNC GRINDING?
Numerical control (NC) is the automation of machine tools operated by precisely programmed commands encoded on a storage medium. This is in opposition to manual control via hand wheels or levers, or mechanical automation via computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) programs.
Most NC today is computer numerical control (CNC), which simply means that computers play an integral role in controlling the systems.
WHY DOES YOUR INDUSTRY LOVE CNC GRINDING?
If you had to choose between achieving greater or lesser profitability, revenue and productivity, your decision would be a no-brainer. But real-life choices aren’t always so clear. Add in upfront, short-term costs, and it’s easy to lose sight of your desired long-term results. When it comes to precision grinding, the same holds true.
