German-based DaimlerChrysler is selling 80.1% of its stake in its Chrysler arm to Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York private equity firm, for $7.4 billion. Cerberus also is taking on Chrysler’s $18 billion obligation for health care and pensions for employees and retirees. Daimler-Benz paid $36 billion for Chrysler in 1998.

Life is filled with information. Information comes from the TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, the Internet, and even each other. Sharing information around the office water cooler is an age-old activity. Information is disseminated, received and deciphered. And finally, one must decide what to do with all that information. Is the information actionable now, later or not at all?

I never thought it would happen. I own a foreign-made car, or at least I will after all of the payments are made.

Dirt is the enemy. Still, no matter how dirty the manufacturing environment, measurements need to be taken and have to be accurate. To address these concerns, calipers have evolved over the years.

Conventional calipers offer only limited protection against the liquids and dirt in a shop environment. “When liquids and dirt penetrate the inner workings of the caliper they cause problems with the gears and rack that control the caliper’s movement,” says Lee Kirtlink, marketing manager at Brown & Sharpe Tesa, A Division of Hexagon Metrology (North Kingston, RI). “Machinists have traditionally taken great care to protect their calipers from this environment by taking their parts away from the process to collect their measurements and carefully cleaning and returning their caliper to their toolbox after each use.”

quality assurance believes: ...nothing is more important to America than the quality of its products; ...a sound quality assurance program increases efficiency, decreases costs, meets competition, increases sales and reduces

People make the difference at Diamond Electric Manufacturing Corp., the inaugural Quality Plant of the Year recipient.

Flowcharts provide a visual representation of an organization's processes.

Fixturing for CMMs takes some imagination.

Several factors need to be considered when setting up in-process gaging.

A torque screwdriver takes the error out of tightening.