5-Axis Robot Carves Metal Like Butter

kkleiner sends along an amazing video of what robot-controlled machining is coming to. "Industrial robots are getting precise enough that they're less like dumb machines and more like automated sculptors producing artwork. Case in point: Daishin's Seki 5-axis mill. The Japanese company celebrated its 50th anniversary last year by using this machine to carve ... a full-scale motorcycle helmet out of one piece of aluminum. No breaks, no joints, the 5-Axis mill simply pivots and rotates to carve metal at some absurd angles. Every cut is guided by sophisticated 3-D design software (Openmind’s HyperMill)."

Comments

Re:Not to sound overly nationalist

[SnarfQuest]

Why isn't the U.S. leading in this area?

It might be the high taxes, high labor costs, invasive government regulations. It could be the chance that Obama might suddenly decide to either take over your company, or send his minions around to destroy it because you made a profit one year out of the last ten. Anyone who makes a profit is evil, and must be destroyed.

If you make the envionnment bad for a large employer, they are likely to prefer creating jobs in a country that doesn't go out of it's way to destroy you. Higher and higher taxes, regulations based on bad science (more taxes), required limits on who you can hire, ...