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September 2014 Shop Meeting RUCO Products
Posted September 25, 2014

The Kansas City Chapter of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held a Shop Meeting at Ruco Products in Blue Springs, Missouri. Ruco is a 46-year-old custom plastic injection molding company. It operates in a 27,000 sq. ft. facility that includes 15 injection molding machines ranging in size from 28 to 300 tons and shot sizes range from .3 to 30 ounces. A tool room is on site for mold repair/maintenance and a 3D printer has been added for prototyping in the last year.

The meeting was sponsored by the National Bank of Kansas City.

After tours and an Italian dinner, the first speaker at the event was National Chairman Ted Toth. He had toured several member shops that day and updated the group on all the events happening at the NTMA office and at the national level.

The next speaker was Omar Nashashibi, founding partner of Franklin Partnership, LLP. The group is a bipartisan government relations firm that works on behalf of NTMA members and the manufacturing industry with Congress, the Administration and relevant government agencies.

Nashashibi discussed many of the pressing issues facing manufacturing and the NTMA in the upcoming year and the current trends in the political races for the upcoming 2014 elections. His topics included taxes, regulations, R&D tax credits, section 179 deductions and many more.


















Skills USA 2014
Posted on July 29, 2014

The Kansas City Chapter helped with the 25th and final SkillsUSA National Championship in Kansas City the week of July 23rd. NIMS (National Institute of Metalworking Standards) was the main sponsor of the CNC Milling, CNC Turning and Precision Machining Technology (PMT) events. The chapter helped with these events as they have for the last 25 years.

NTMA member companies volunteering or providing equipment/materials included Crossland Machinery, Haas Automation, R&D Leverage, MCC’s BTC and TCI Precision Metals.

Nearly 150 post-secondary and high school students participated in these contests at the MCC’s BTC.

At a Judges dinner the KC NTMA Chapter and Crossland Machinery were recognized for their 25 years of support and participation.









KC/STL Summer Lake Meeting
Posted on July 29, 2014













The St. Louis and Kansas City Chapters of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held their annual joint summer conference at the Chateau on the Lake in Branson, Missouri, on July 25-26. Sponsors of the conference included Federated Insurance, CliftonLarsonAllen, Paulo Products, J&S Tool, Superior Die Set, United Community Bank and Sandvik Coromant.

Friday afternoon started off with a workshop on “The Great Game of Business” by Steve Baker.

A two-hour industry roundtable was then held. It was facilitated by a team from the Quality Coach consultants of Washington, Missouri. Topics covered helping employees obtain an “owners attitude”; training and development of employees; how to keep employees informed and how to encourage and incentivize employees.

Friday night featured a social mixer/dinner and a concert at the Mickey Gilley Theater. Activities during Saturday included golf, skeet shooting and a catamaran cruise on the lake.

The Saturday dinner featured a presentation by NTMA national Chairman Ted Toth. He spoke about this year’s theme (Retooling the Precision Manufacturing Industry), the different programs offered by the NTMA and the importance of training the next generation of employees and owners. The audience at the dinner was brought up to speed on NTMA developments and encouraged to attend national meetings. The featured speaker was Economist Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence on economic trends impacting manufacturing.


April 2014 Shop Meeting at United Metal Spinning
Posted on April 17, 2014

The Kansas City Chapter of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held a Shop Meeting at United Metal Spinning in Kansas City, Missouri. The meeting was sponsored by Environmental Air Tech.

The evening started with tours of the 5th generation family firm. The 84-year-old company offers metal spinning. This unique process takes a flat piece of metal and makes a cyclindrical object without a seam. The pieces produced include: funnels, goblets, light fixtures, fuel cans, missile nose cones, and can be made out of all types of metal including: steel, aluminum, brass, bronze, copper, stainless steel, pewter, silver, and even gold.

United Metal Spinning can produce parts manually or with CNC equipment. This allows them to make prototypes or small runs as well as large runs.

The speaker for the event was Don Hamer, national sales manager for MicroAir Clean Air Systems. He discussed air quality issues and regulations in the industry and the various methods to deal with them.

In other chapter business, Ruco Products, Blue Springs, Missouri, was presented a new member plaque.











February 2014 Shop Meeting – KC KS Community College
Posted on March 5, 2014

The Kansas City Chapter of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held a Shop Meeting at the Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) TEC Education Center’s new location on February 27th. Over 60 attended the event. The meeting was sponsored by SECO Tools.

The evening started with tours of KCKCC TEC’s machining and welding facilities. Other training offered at the center include: automotive tech; property maintenance; computer repair; construction; cosmetology; culinary arts; electrical tech; health; HVAC; appliance tech and others.

The first speaker at the event was KC NTMA’s Andy Borst speaking about the Emerging Leaders program within the chapter. This is getting the next owners/managers involved with the chapter.

Maureen Carruthers and Steven Tamasi spoke next about NTMA’s National Robotic League (NRL). They noted how the robotic competition is drawing the interest of teens (and their parents) and making them aware of careers in manufacturing.

Rick Cavallaro, Safety/Facility Mgr with Oregon Blount Inc., covering global safety harmonization labeling and SDS. He noted the new pictograms being used internationally and becoming required in the U.S. by OSHA and EPA.















January Networking Mixer
Posted on January 31, 2014

The Kansas City Chapter of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held a member networking mixer to kick off the new year at Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge in Kansas City’s Power & Light District on January 23rd.














Sept 19th Shop Tour at Accessible Technologies
Posted on September 21, 2013

The Kansas City Chapter of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held a Shop Tour at Accessible Technologies in Lenexa, Kansas on September 19th. Over 80 attended the event.

The manufacturing firm produces the Procharger brand of super chargers for autos, trucks and motorcycles and also produces the Inovair brand of turbo blowers for industrial use.













The featured speaker was Josh Boggs of Fisher/Unitech. He spoke about 3D Printing Technology and its growth in the manufacturing arena. He specifically talked about polyjet and FDM 3D applications and their potential uses for NTMA members. These included prototyping, tools/fixtures and inspection. He noted that the typical savings of time and/or money in using 3D printing can range from 70-75% for most manufacturers.


Skills USA Championships
Posted on July 17, 2013

NIMS (National Institute for Metalworking Skills) sponsored the CNC Milling, CNC Turning and Precision Machining Technology National Competitions at the SkillsUSA Championships in Kansas City during the last week of June.

The Metropolitan Community College-Business & Technology Campus (MCC-BTC) hosted the SkillsUSA/NIMS Manual Machining Championship on June 26th.

High school students, technical college students and their instructors from all over the country came together in Kansas City to put their technical skills to the test.

Numerous KC NTMA member firms provided volunteers for the judging of the event.

Members providing volunteers included: Crossland Machinery; Haas Automation; Kansas City Kansas Community College; R&D Leverage and the MCC BTC.

A competition dinner was held on June 26th at the Golden Ox in KCMO.  National NTMA Chairman Bob Mosey was a speaker at the dinner.   













Shop Meeting at Heartland Fabrication & Machine
Posted on April 23, 2013













The Kansas City Chapter of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) held a Shop Meeting at Heartland Fabrication & Machine’s (HFM) new location in Raytown, Missouri on April 18th. Over 80 attended the event.

The CNC machine and fabrication shop offers CNC turning (including y-axis), milling, drilling, tapping, welding (MIG & TIG), CNC sawing, tube bending and light punching. HFM serves a wide range of industries in mid-America including: Department of Defense, architectural/ ornamental; construction; railroad; agriculture and food processing. HFM, which has DBE and MBE designations, can be contacted at: (816) 778-0766 or www.heartlandfab.com.

The meeting was sponsored by Federated Insurance and the bar sponsor was National Bank of Kansas CIty.

The featured speaker was Kirk Young, SPHR, CEO of Job Match Assessment. A 28-year HR veteran, Young spoke about “Getting Gen Y Hired & Engaged.” He discussed traits and characteristics of Gen Yers and the best ways to hire, train, motivate this younger generation. Young gave numerous examples of how this generation thinks and look at their careers.

The firm can be contacted at www.jobmatchassessment.com.


Ernie May Passes Away
Posted on March 10, 2013

The chapter is sad to report that Ernest “Ernie” May, founder of May Technology & Mfg (May Tool & Mold), passed away on February 17th. He was born in Romania in 1928. During WWII, he and his family moved to Austria where he was able to learn the Tool & Die trade. He then moved to England where he waited for a visa to emigrate to the U.S.. He arrived in the US in December 1955. Shortly after arriving, he met Theresia Reinhart, visiting from Germany. They were married in 1956. Ernie built his American dream, May Tool & Mold, Co. a Tool & Die Shop.

He is survived by his wife and their two sons Steve (Gayla) May and Reno (Ronda) May, both of Grain Valley and 4 grandchildren, Kristin, Erin, Austin, and Alexandra May. He was a patriotic citizen and was forever thankful for being accepted to this country.