21st_century

editorials: 21st_century

Welcome to the 21st Century

Much has changed since Dave Gingery wrote his book series in 1981, although not that much. Here are some things regarding machinery that have changed, and are changing right now:

political changes:
Increasing cost of steel scrap, increasing cost of oil, cheap chinese machine tools and tooling, "hobby machining" market,

availability changes
widespread styrofoam insulation, cheap personal computers and CNC, epoxy resins, cheap carbide inserts, widespread internet access and the WWW, new burner designs, cheap taper roller bearings,

technological changes:
hydrostatic bearing design improvements, hexapod machine design,