Peter Zelinski Editorial Director

Peter Zelinski has been a writer and editor for Modern Machine Shop since 1997. His monthly column, “The Z Axis,” has appeared in the magazine since 2000, and he is a co-host of MMS’s Made in the USA podcast. Pete is also an authority on the advance of 3D printing into industrial production. In 2012 he helped to launch Additive Manufacturing Media, and he serves as editor-in-chief of this group. He has been a regular speaker at the Additive Manufacturing Conference, which is now the Formnext Forum, and he is the co-host of an award-winning video series on additive manufacturing, The Cool Parts Show. Pete earned his degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and he first learned about machining by running and programming machine tools in a metalworking laboratory within what is now GE Aviation.

Random Thoughts on Manufacturing, Innovation, What We Appreciate, and More

By: Peter Zelinski 12/1/2023

Here are several mini-columns merged into one. Take these thoughts all at once or in small doses.
#zaxis

Causes Are Complex: The Case for Choosing the Right Failures to Analyze

By: Peter Zelinski 11/1/2023

The nuance and complexity of failure in bearings is enough to illustrate the difficulty of failure analysis in general, and how much consideration this analysis deserves.
#zaxis

Automation

Automation Plus Capabilities Beyond Machining Featured at Mazak Event

By: Peter Zelinski 10/20/2023

Friction stir welding is one example of a capability for emerging applications that changes the scope of the machine tool. Here are observations from Mazak’s Discover 2023 event.

Industries

In Moldmaking, Mantle Process Addresses Lead Time and Talent Pool

By: Peter Zelinski 10/2/2023

A new process delivered through what looks like a standard machining center promises to streamline machining of injection mold cores and cavities and even answer the declining availability of toolmakers.
#workforcedevelopment #zaxis

Machine Shops Move Beyond Metal Removal Rate as a Measure of Success

By: Peter Zelinski 9/1/2023

Metal removal rate is less of a defining factor for machining success than it once was. The reasons relate to changes in tools, processes, workpieces and machines.
#zaxis

Additive

5 Big Themes in Additive Manufacturing at Formnext Forum: Austin

By: Peter Zelinski 7/21/2023

Formnext Forum: Austin, a two-day event at the end of August focused on additive manufacturing for production, includes a conference exploring important ideas in AM related to supply chains, bridge production, enterprise transformation and more.
#zaxis

Measurement

You Are Not Spending Enough on Gaging

By: Peter Zelinski 7/5/2023

Is there an intuitive ratio shaping shops’ perceptions of how much gaging capacity is appropriate for their machining capacity? Much has changed; that ratio might need to be reconsidered.
#zaxis

Industries

For This Machine Shop, Licensing Is the Answer to the Inventor’s Dilemma

By: Peter Zelinski 6/2/2023

Machine shops are natural inventors, but not necessarily suited to supporting and marketing a product. This Minnesota shop with an invention related to micromolding will share it through licensing.
#zaxis

Random Thoughts About Reshoring and Buying American

By: Peter Zelinski 5/1/2023

What will be the effect of the supply chain disruptions of recent years? Here are several observations related to where companies produce and how we think about a manufactured product’s origins.
#zaxis

Made in the USA - Season 2 Episode 6: Why, and How, Hardinge is Reshoring Machine Tool Production

By: Brent Donaldson 4/11/2023

In this episode of Made in the USA, several executives and senior staff at Hardinge give their first-person account of how they formulated the plan to shift the manufacturing of its milling and turning product lines from its Taiwan plant to its plant in Elmira, New York, the major challenges they encountered and the rewards that made it worth the effort.

Why Towns Want Manufacturing Plants

By: Peter Zelinski 4/7/2023

A manufacturing facility can harness and focus the native ability of people growing up in a town, and channel this into livelihoods and homes for the town’s next generation. Is this something we lost sight of and are now seeing again?
#zaxis

Made in the USA - Season 2 Episode 5: A Motorcycle Supply Chain in Amish Country

By: Brent Donaldson 3/28/2023

Janus Motorcycles clearly outlines where each of its parts is sourced. Its top-selling engine is a 229 cc air-cooled single-cylinder two-valve pushrod motor from a manufacturer in China. The company's co-founder Richard Worsham makes no bones about it being the best choice of engine for his line of Halcyon 250 motorcycles.