Open Directory - Business:Industrial Goods and Services:Machinery and Tools:Cutting and Machining


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Top: Business: Industrial_Goods_and_Services: Machinery_and_Tools: Cutting_and_Machining

This category contains sites concerned with the sale and service of equipment used in the metalworking industry and, in several cases, with extended or alternative applications for shaping and forming plastic, stone, and wood materials. The selection varies from hand tools to advanced and sophisticated machinery, and the objective is the fabrication of parts and components needed for a wide variety of purposes. Such products are at the heart of the Machine Shop business and are also frequently turned out in house by machinery manufacturers for their own use -- and, not the least, for incorporation in the machinery the companies build.
Note: The focus in this category is on the manufacture, supply, and service of equipment. In contrast, sites put together by users of the equipment (such as Machine Shops) are listed in the Casting, Molding, Machining categories.

Cutting Machinery

This category contains sites concerned with the manufacture, supply, and servicing of equipment used to cut metal, plastic, stone, and wood materials. It also embraces sister categories for laser and waterjet based machinery, as well as for equipment primarily used in the woodworking trades.

Machine Tools

This category is focused on equipment used to machine components in a variety of ways. These include drilling, tapping, milling, turning, deburring, buffing, and polishing. Although the terminology varies -- and sometimes rather inconsistently -- there is a widespread habit of placing all the equipment under a generic heading of "Machine Tools." This nomenclature helps, in turn, to differentiate guillotines and saws that simply cut material ahead of the machining processes -- and are allocated to the Cutting Machinery category.

Tooling, Tools, Consumables

Although metalworking terms are often used imprecisely by manufacturers and users alike, they are given some special meanings in this Tooling,_Tools,_Consumables segment of the Cutting_and_Machining section of the Directory. Moreover, many companies serving the machining and fabrication industries offer a diverse range of products and often name them in a variety of different ways. However, if only for the sake of some consistency, the following assumptions form the basis of allocating sites in the numerous pages that make up this major category.
1. Tooling is considered to be items such as toolholders and workholders that add to the capabilities and capacity of cutting machines and machine tools. It also refers to add-on equipment that doesn't normally come with an original machine. Quite often it is described as a capital addition as opposed to a product that will wear out and eventually need replacing. (In what may be a useful analogy, a Tooling product can be seen as a computer peripheral.)
2. Tools are adjustable and reusable items that produce a desired result when fitted into a cutting or fabricating machine. The range covers saws, knives, and blades, as well a host of drill bits and inserts, grinding tools, cutting dies, and end mills. (Extending the computer analogy, Tools can be seen as printer ribbons and ink cartridges.)
3. Consumables are items such as lubricants that facilitate cutting, drilling, and machine operations in general, as well as media used with grinding, buffing, and polishing equipment. As the term implies, there's an ongoing use of the product during a machine operation. (A computer analogy isn't readily available, but printing paper and floppy discs are somewhat comparable examples.)
Note: A number of sites are indexed in this main Tooling,_Tools,_Consumables category itself. The rationale for this allocation lies in the fact that the companies involved supply the full range -- or at least a diversified selection -- of these ancillary products.
Additional note: This same "catch-all" principle applies to the three main subcategories (Accessories; Parts_and_Consumables; and Tools) -- i.e. the companies involved have a product or activity range that is varied rather than narrow in focus.