About the Authors

STEVE F. KRAR

Steve F. Krar spent 15 years in the trade, first as a machinist and finally as a tool and die maker. After this period, he entered Teachers’ College and graduated from the University of Toronto with a Specialist’s Certificate in Machine Shop Practice. During this 20 years of teaching, Mr. Krar was active in vocational and technical education and served on the executive committee of many educational organizations. For 10 years, he was on the summer staff of the College of Education, University of Toronto, involved in teacher training programs. Active in machine tool associations, Steve Krar is a Life Member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and former associate director of the GE Superabrasives Partnership for Manufacturing Productivity.

Mr. Krar’s continual research over the past 45 years in manufacturing technology has involved many courses with leading world manufacturers and an opportunity to study under Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Mr. Krar spent a week researching Nanotechnology at leading research centers, universities, and industry in Switzerland. He is coauthor of over 65 technical books, such as Machine Shop Training, Machine Tool Operations, CNC Simplified, Superabrasives—Grinding and Machining, and Exploring Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, some of which have been translated into 5 languages and used throughout the world.

ARTHUR R. GILL

Arthur R. Gill served an apprenticeship as a tool and die maker. After 10 years in the trade, he entered the Ontario Community College system. Mr. Gill served as a professor and coordinator of precision metal trades and apprenticeship training for 30 years at Niagara College in St. Catharines. He was a member of the Ontario Precision Metal Trades college curriculum committee for apprenticeship training and Heads of Apprenticeship Training. Mr. Gill is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and worked closely with industry to continually improve manufacturing technology.

Mr. Gill has coauthored a number of textbooks, including CNC technology and Programming, Computer Numerical Control Simplified, and Exploring Advanced Manufacturing Technology with Steve Krar. In 1991, he was invited by China to assist in developing a Precision Machining and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) training facility at Yueyang University in Hunan Province.

Other Highlights (Krar and Gill)

• Consulting editor, manufacturing technology, for Industrial Press, New York, and contributing editor, Advanced Manufacturing Magazine, Burlington , Ontario

• Judge at the annual SkillsUSA competition for CNC programming and machining, held in Kansas City

• Research in new developments in Manufacturing Technology in North America and Nanotechnology at universities, industries, and the IBM Research Lab in Switzerland

PETER SMID

Peter Smid graduated from high school with a specialty in machine shop training. He then entered industry, completed an apprenticeship program, and gained valuable experience as a machinist skilled on all types of machine tools. Mr. Smid emigrated to Canada in 1968 and spent the next 26 years employed in the machine tool industry as a machinist and tool and die maker.

In the early 1970s, he became involved in Computer Numerical Control (CNC) as a programmer/operator and devoted the next 18 years to becoming proficient in all aspects of computerized manufacturing. In 1989, he became an independent consultant, and hundreds of companies have used Mr. Smid’s CNC and CAD/CAM skills to improve their manufacturing operations. He also wrote a comprehensive, 500-page CNC programming handbook, which is rapidly becoming the Bible of the trade.

In 1995, he became a consultant/professor of Advanced Manufacturing focusing on industrial and customized training in CNC, CAD/CAM, and Agile Manufacturing. His many years of teaching, training, lecturing, and designing curriculum gives him the opportunity to pass along his vast knowledge of modern manufacturing technology to students of all ages.