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82 MMS December 2017 mmsonline.com FEATURE What is your motivation for buying a machine tool? 1 Increase Productivity 2 Increase Capacity 3 Reduce Costs 4 New Models 5 Tighter Quality Standards 6 Process Flexibility 7 Make Instead of Buy 8 Other Motives tooling segment that shops plan to spend the most on. One reason for this shift also could be related to the precision of HMCs. Manufacturing in the U.S. continues to move to higher value-added parts, which often necessitates smaller tools. It's possible that the level of precision required at U.S. machine shops has reached a level where the demand for smaller solid tools has outpaced the demand for inserts. Of course, smaller tools remove less metal in each cut, but the increased speed of today's machines means that these smaller cuts can remove as much metal in the same amount of time as larger, slower cuts typically done with inserts. In other words, machining with a smaller tool at higher speeds may reduce the number of passes to finish the part. Likewise, cutting forces may be reduced, making workholding and clamp- ing simpler and lighter. MUCH MORE IN THE SURVEY DATA The 2018 Capital Spending Survey does seem to corroborate the much-discussed trend to hori- zontal machining, particularly in job shops. How- ever, the sur vey also provides data on capital equipment spending projected for many other types of machines by many industries as well. There is a wealth of information contained in the survey. Other trends and patterns can be detected. The discussion presented here is simply one that has the broadest implications for the metalwork- ing community. This graph compares projected 2018 spending for HMCs as classified by pallet size. The greatest increase in spending is anticipated for the class of machines with pallets in the 400-800-mm range. Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents say their top motivation for capital equipment spending in 2018 is increased productivity. Spending on Horizontal Machining Centers by Type Billions of Real USD