After predicting that the demand for changes in automotive products and the substitution of new devices will increase in the next few years and stating major factors with which managements are concerned at present, the author mentions that, after direct-labor costs, the next largest items of expense in a machine shop are generally depreciation and obsolescence of machines, fixtures and tools, especially when a plant is tooled for high production. He believes that the machine-tool industry might aid by reducing its prices and that this can be done, but that in such case the industry must eliminate its present cast-iron type of designing and many of its present manufacturing methods.
General machine-shop practice is analyzed and the illustrations show three classes of fixtures: (a) holding, (b) self-contained tools with holding means and (c) complete mechanisms. These show a new technic in obtaining fixtures cheaply, quickly and of such construction that they are capable of rapid, easy change. They illustrate the use of welded steel instead of cast iron and the principle of built-in accuracy.
