Bust-up in Brazil

We ran a story on an interesting event at the FEIMAFE 2009 show in Brazil. A new CNC control on display created quite a stir when an interested operator attempted to take a photo with his cell phone. A security guard intercepted the attempt and quickly ushered the man away. What were they trying to hide? Witnesses stated the control demonstration centered on increased productivity. Supposedly, they described it as “exponentially” better productivity. Is this somehow tied in to the shop in Asheville? We need to look further into this. Check out our story on www.cnceyeteam.com.

Job Shops Held Back by G-Code

Today at the CNC EyeTeam newsroom we updated our editor on the HBH job shop investigation. I told him the two guys chasing us outside of HBH had to be from RELIC. Their car had a bumper sticker that read “Who controls the past, controls the future.” Our editor had trouble believing RELIC was involved. He suggested they are an old reliable corporation that basically owns the job shop machine control industry, though not the most advanced CNC, but that’s ok because job shops have long accepted them. As our editor was saying this, my cameraman revealed that he had saved our recent investigative footage by downloading it to his cell phone. Upon seeing this footage, our editor seemed convinced there is a big story here. Hopefully we are now moving ahead with our investigation.

Closer to truth...and danger

Tonight, Joe and I finally snuck into HBH. I witnessed their unusual productivity inside the shop. Suddenly, we were accosted by a security guard who took us to a room and interrogated us about what we knew about HBH having “cracked the G-code.” Then an HBH boss demanded to know who tipped me off about their faster setups and easier CNC. Of course, I wouldn’t reveal my source. Before they threw us out, they unraveled all the tape in Joe’s camera and I was furious. Just then I got a call on my cell. I recognized the voice immediately as Dark Cover. He mentioned RELIC, the big CNC manufacturer, claiming “it’s a condition job shops have tolerated for too long”. Then he said we’d been “compromised.” Sure enough, we looked up and saw two guys videotaping us from a black car. They began to chase our van, about to catch us when a truck pulled out and blocked their way. On the truck were the words “Seeing is Believing”. I’m determined to find out what it means.