Customer Successes
Shop Moves from Manual to Multi-tasking, Simple to Complex
What started with one manual mill and lathe quickly grew into an extremely productive machine shop that attributes its success to CNC and multi-tasking machining capability. With that technology, Industrial Machine Works Inc. in Baker, La., consistently shortened its job turnaround times and increased production capacity. But most importantly, the shop has been able to expand its business because of an ability to efficiently and cost effectively machine parts that are much more complex than any it had ever done in the past.
Read MoreINTEGREX Machines Produce Tremendous Gains for MTH Pumps
According to MTH Pumps, a combination of Mazak‘s Integrex machines and their relationship with Machinery Systems Inc. has helped them to achieve amazing growth over the past few years. “The Integrex concept of Done-in-One multi-tasking has really helped us achieve tremendous gains in productivity,” said Tim Tremain, President, MTH Pumps.
Read MoreSatowfi Machining Solutions
Satowfi Machining Solutions believes in buying high quality, new machines. And they made their first purchase with Magnum Precision Machines just about 3 years ago because of a service. Just this past month, they made their next two purchases with…
Read MoreMade in America: Industrial Sales and Manufacturing
Industrial Sales and Manufacturing, a Mazak machine user located in Erie, Pennsylvania, has been a premier manufacturer and supplier of quality machined, fabricated and assembled components since 1967.
Read MoreAerospace Shop Looks for Trouble to Stay Competitive
Hansen Engineering Co. in Harbor City, Calif., constantly looks for trouble to maintain its competitive advantage. As a supplier to the aerospace industry, the shop specializes in tackling those troublesome jobs that other shops have given up on or tend to avoid altogether.
Read MoreManufacturing Automation: The Right Choice for Jobshop
Mention automation, and most people think high-volume production environments in which millions of parts are pumped out on a regular basis. While that may be true in many instances, it is definitely not the case at Choice Precision Inc. in Whitehall, Pa. In fact, the situation is quite the opposite.
Read MoreShop Achieves Primary Objective of No Secondary Ops
Hartman Enterprises Inc. is a business built on multi-tasking machine tool technology. And from the moment the Oneida, N.Y., shop powered up its first multi-tasking machine in the early 1990s, and even to this day, it has one primary production objective for that type of equipment. That objective is to eliminate secondary operations involving multiple machines for as many different workpieces as possible.
Read MoreThe Happy Captives
At age 16, Tony Nguyen (Nuyen) - cofounder of Fullerton, CA's SoCal Precision Machining, Inc. - was one of the approximately 500,000 Vietnamese boat people who escaped communist Vietnam by way of Indonesia and eventually immigrated to the United States.
Read MoreOil & Gas Boom
The surge in oil and gas directional drilling has business booming at Taylor Oilfield Manufacturing Inc. The Broussard, LA, shop manufactures key components for mud motors, which have revolutionized directional well drilling. These devices, powered by liquid force pumped down to them in a well, turn well-drilling bits and make long-distance angled and even horizontal well drilling possible.
Read MoreMetalcutting Mettle at Valent Aerostructures
Valent Aerostructures (Kansas City, MO) meticulously selects every machine tool purchase it makes, and only those machines that provide the perfect combination of reliability, production value and lowest cost per part, as well as the lowest cost of ownership, are even considered. A machine that makes it through the aerospace company's extensive in-house evaluation must then prove its worth as far as performance, accuracy and increased metal removal rates are concerned.
Read MoreMazak Distributor Northwest Machine Technologies
Florence, Kentucky, October 17, 2012 – Mazak Corporation's distributor Northwest Machine Technologies serving Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Western Wisconsin has launched a new in-house automation division that will provide customers with complete robot integration services for their Mazak machines. With the added integration service, customers will further benefit from Mazak's comprehensive approach to automation solutions together with the local expert service and support from Northwest Machine Technologies to boost productivity through better machine utilization.
Read MoreManufacturing Cells Keep Manifold Production Flowing
Manufacturing cells that group together machine tools for processing components made from similar materials and families of parts are key to a lean environment, allowing manufacturers to better manage their workflow and ultimately operate faster and more productively. Daman Products Co., Inc., a leading hydraulic valve manifold shop based in Northern, Indiana, has long relied on manufacturing cells to achieve higher productivity levels, improve on-time delivery as well as increase its responsiveness to fluctuating market conditions.
Read MoreYou may not be familiar with the company called Lifetime. But chances are, you own products that are designed and manufactured by them
This is especially true if you are an avid outdoor enthusiast, as Lifetime makes such products as swing sets, lawn chairs, picnic tables, storage sheds, kayaks, tent trailers, and basketball hoops, to name a few.
Read MoreMulti-Tasking Pumps Up Shop’s Machining Capability
Reata Engineering and Machine Works in Englewood, Colorado, took a huge leap of faith when it acquired its first multi-tasking machine. None of the shop’s highly skilled machinists had any experience with such an advanced machine, but the shop was confident that multi-tasking would significantly reduce part setups and eliminate having to use multiple machines in processing the shop’s highly complex parts, in particular, components for peristaltic pumps used in the medical field.
Read MoreAdvanced Automation Drives Company’s Success
Specializing in high and low volume work, close tolerance machining and leak testing of aluminum castings for the automotive industry, Metal Technologies has spent the past 14 years developing its niche as a second-tier supplier to leading car and truck manufacturers. The company attributes much of its successes to fully automated manufacturing cells that utilize advanced machine tools from top suppliers such as Mazak.
Read MorePrecision Tech
More than a third of a century old. Precision Tech was formed more than 35 years ago by two young brothers, Tom at the age of 25 and Terry, just 20 years young. In fact, Terry says, "My father had to co-sign our business license and loan because legally you had to be at least 21 years of age for signature authority."
Read MoreInnovative Precision
If you have doubts about American manufacturers' ability to remain competitive in a global economy, you need to look no further than Innovative Precision. The company, based in beautiful Ogden, UT, opened for business in 1998. It was founded by Bryan Cardon at the mere age of 22, when most young men and women are more interested in fun, Facebook, and dating than building a successful business.
Read MoreShop Excels in Severe Service Oil & Gas Valve Manufacturing
During the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis, CORTEC Fluid Control, in Houma, Louisiana, was called upon to quickly supply two of its severe-service, extreme-pressure valve assemblies. These were needed on the ship that was dispatched to drill a relief well that eased the flow of oil from the spilling well so that repairs could be made. Working around the clock, the shop manufactured the assembly and delivered it in just two days. Typically, such an assembly would take weeks to produce.
Read MoreShop Casts A Critical Role In Heavy Vehicle Fuel Efficiency
Big-name automakers, heavy vehicle/truck manufacturers, as well as those producing marine craft, are all under pressure to develop engines that are more fuel-efficient and expel less harmful emissions. And most often, engine designers achieve these stringent efficiency goals using an emissions reduction technique known as Exhaust Gas Recirculation or EGR.
Read MoreShop Gains Complete Process Control with Automation
Instead of the intention of eliminating the human element from part manufacturing operations, Stark Industrial LLC, located in North Canton, Ohio, incorporates automation to achieve complete part processing control. Automation allows the shop’s highly trained machinists to focus more on inspection and other critical operations rather than consuming their valuable skills and time on menial tasks such as loading and unloading machines.
Read MoreFive-axis Machining Gives Shop a Cutting Edge in Medical Work
Matt Dahms isn’t a doctor, but he attends several orthopedic shows every year, often conducts consultations with surgeons and is sometimes asked to be on-hand during orthopedic surgeries. Dahms is an engineer, machinist and the president of Oak View Tool Company LLC that designs, prototypes and manufactures special surgical cutting devices and orthopedic carbide tools. Keeping in close contact with its medical device OEM customers and surgeons is what allows the shop to set itself apart from the competition by continuously creating new and improved tools and devices that work more efficiently and are easier on the orthopedic surgeons that use them and, most critical, on the patients they treat.
Read MoreMedical Manufacturing With Backbone
On any given day, there can be as many as 2,000 different components circulating around the production floor at Engineered Medical Systems (EMS). EMS specializes in manufacturing complex medical instrumentation, most of which is used for spine related procedures.
Read MoreKeep Up, Or Get Left Behind
Turner Medical Inc. is one of the few tier-I-level suppliers to the medical industry that can boast it manufactures FDA-approved surgical implants and the devices used to install them. Producing both implants and instrumentation is considered rare for non-OEM medical companies, but the shop that once specialized in tool and die work is now a recognized leader in medical manufacturing with upwards of $1.75-million worth of product shipped out of its facility on a monthly basis to customers nationwide.
Read MoreSpecialty Turbomachinery Shop Gains Vertical Versatility
Barber-Nichols Inc. is not the kind of shop that competes with the average machine shop down the street. The company is quite different in that it produces full assemblies that are so highly complex that there may be only one or two other companies in the world capable of producing them.
Read MoreAlways Advance: One Supplier’s Attack Plan For Defense Work
ADEPT Technologies operates under a business philosophy of ‘move forward or die.’ Such a simple and direct approach has been the driving force behind the company’s transformation from a stereotypical machine shop to the fully integrated national defense manufacturing facility it is today, and one that could be considered a model for how machine shops might look and operate in the future.
Read MorePennsylvania Manufacturer Succeeds Through Attention to Detail
At every level, Acero reveals itself to be at odds with the public’s general perceptions of American manufacturing. The company’s facility is well lit and virtually spotless, resembling a laboratory more than a shop floor. In April 2011, the company acquired ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certifications for continuous quality improvement. While attaining these distinctions proves an exceptional challenge for many, Acero already dedicated itself so fully to quality that the certification process required little effort compared to its existing operations. This dedication is apparent at all levels.
Read MoreInsourcing Yields Tremendous Success for Bike Component Manufacturer
The story is a familiar one. Hoping to save money on manufacturing and assembly, leaders in an industry move production overseas. The majority of component suppliers follow, out of the necessity to be close to their customers. Many of these maintain their American headquarters to keep administration, engineering and r&d at home, but the manufacturing jobs disappear. The bicycle industry underwent this transformation through the mid-nineties, shifting the majority of its production first to Taiwan, then to China.
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