Chapter 8: Buyers and Users

The Products Produced

Automotive Industry	Heavy Vehicle Industry	Miscellaneous Industries
Cylinder blocks	Cylinder blocks	Railroad wheels
Cylinder heads	Cylinder heads	Railroad axles
Connecting rods	Connecting rods	Locomotive cylinder blocks
Pistons	Pistons	Locomotive cylinder liners
Bearing caps	Bearing caps	Electric motor frames
Front covers	Front covers	Bicycle crankshafts
Intake manifolds	Intake manifolds	Power turbine components
Exhaust manifolds	Exhaust manifolds	Power generator components
Crankshafts	Crankshafts	Paper mill rolls
Camshafts	Camshafts	Aircraft wing spars
Transmission cases	Transmission cases	Landing gear components
Differential cases	Differential cases	Wing riveted fabrications
Valve bodies	Valve bodies	Wing and tail fiber layup
Universal yokes	Front wheel spindles	Small engine cylinder blocks
Universal crosses	Front wheel knuckles	Small engine cylinder heads
Front wheel spindles	Front axle I beams	Small engine crankshafts
Front wheel knuckles		Small engine pistons
Upper control arms		Small engine connecting rods
Lower control arms		Air compressor pistons
Rear axles		Air compressor housings
Rear axle tubes		Hydraulic pump bodies
Ring gears		Hydraulic valve bodies
Pinion gears		Uranium bars
Steering gear housings		Petroleum fittings

These lists demonstrate the basic industries around the world that are served by the special machine tool industry and some of the products that are produced on those machine tools.

The list relates to the actual manufacture of components. It does not cover the automated mechanical assembly or the welding of components to become larger, more comprehensive components. Nor does it include automatic testing, which is many times part of a manufacturing process. Together, they will likely equal the size of the list above.

It is not easy to put this into perspective, but consider the following: In the U.S. alone, in a 15 million-unit car year, the automotive list above represents roughly 750 million complex, precision parts to be manufactured, mostly on special machine tools, in one year. The small engine industry, consisting primarily of lawn mowers, snow blowers, chainsaws, pump and generator sets, etc, would account for a number of a similar magnitude.

Further, most of the components listed require multiple operations, usually meaning multiple machine tools. Many times, as in the case of a cylinder block for an auto engine, they will require many. Fourteen different multi-station machines are normal for the cylinder block, each of which performs many different operations. Similar numbers are required to process a crankshaft. It is also common that two or more lines of production equipment can be required to meet the desired production volume of a given product, doubling those numbers or more.

The components being manufactured are very diverse and range from delicate aluminum pieces, such as pistons and typewriter frames at very high production rates, to gigantic cast iron diesel or welded locomotive cylinder blocks and power generation turbine components at very low production rates.