M Akingthebestofaslowdown
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650 words text only full page; 580 with quote; 520 words with medium size image JANUARY 2009 / VOLUME 61 / ISSUE 1 staying sharp manager’s desk By Keith Jennings Making the best of a slowdown t’s a new year and if the pundits are correct, many of require reevaluation from time to time, which is never us are in the midst of a downturn, if not a recession. If convenient. The effort can reap rewards later, though. Ithis is your situation, the stress factor is probably high. Software training can also be important. With Even under these circumstances, however, there are ways to manufacturing technology becoming more essential, effectively use the extra time to add value to your business. exploiting it can provide a significant return on While most everyone prefers a full and busy workload, investment. Even though sitting in front of a training that’s not always the reality. Identifying some valuable computer all day sounds dull, a slowdown could be the activities and making time to complete them can have best time to get it done. This could include training a positive impact when your business rebounds. Under with a focus on better utilization of CAD packages, the present conditions, one of the best uses of time is manufacturing ERP applications or even Microsoft employee training. Office. We all need this on occasion. Can your employees “Training” has broad meaning and can include read and understand their productivity reports? Can education in plant safety, forklift operations, employees effectively use e-mail distribution lists and cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills, quality and prepare invoices, purchase orders and quality documents? inspection methods, Many probably can, and equipment functions and some probably have no clue. many others. During a Under the present conditions, These tools can make shop busy period, most of these one of the best uses of time is management easier, especially functions are usually low when employees are trained priorities and may even be employee training. to maintain them. forgotten, but a slow cycle How about management can be an easier time to focus on improving employee and supervisory training? After our company participated skills through training. in this kind of training a few years ago, our key employees Because many small shops aren’t in a position to pay handled situations more professionally and defused for expensive training programs, consider using more potential problems. experienced employees to facilitate. Or perhaps a cost- While employee training is one of the most important effective program through a trade organization or a local activities that can be accomplished during a slowdown, college would be worthwhile. Your payroll company may it isn’t the only one. Machine maintenance could be a have training resources, or if you use an outside company priority. Or maybe some plant cleanup and rearranging is for safety supplies and site inspections, it may have a good in order. program with materials readily available. However you determine the appropriate task to tackle, At our shop, we’ve recently focused on equipment make use of the time and put your shop in a better training as one area of need, including cross-training position to compete more effectively when the economy some employees on different machines. Increasing turns around. And it will. operators’ knowledge of your machines and their many Happy 2009! CTE idiosyncrasies helps not only the operators, but even related functions like job estimating, where operators About the Author: Keith Jennings is president of Crow and programmers can assist in the estimation process to Corp., Tomball, Texas, a family-owned company focusing ensure quotes are accurate and realistic. on machining, laser cutting, metal fabrication and metal A slowdown may also be a good time to implement stamping. He can be e-mailed at [email protected]. a more organized procedure for quote reviews, ISO adherence or shop data collection. Many of these tasks staying sharp part time Building bridges By Bill Kennedy, Contributing Editor lan said he runs the insert “somewhat the shop to reach in and create a coun- slow” to lessen the tool-damaging effects terbore at the back of the part. The tool Quality Industries Inc. has always been of voids and hard spots in castings. is moved into the part, and then the tool quick to react to new trends by reinvent- Next, to create the part’s central bore, back bores towards the front, enlarging ing itself, according to Jim Kaplan, com- Quality Industries uses a quick-change the 5.500"-dia. hole to 7.410" to 7.415". pany vice president. With his brother boring system that was designed and Part specifications require a distance of and company President Jerry Kap- fabricated in-house. The tooling consists 4.375" (±0.005") between the front and lan, Jim runs the job shop their grand- back counterbores. Therefore, after the father founded in Cleveland in 1946. initial roughing passes, the tool is backed The shop has continually evolved in re- out and measurements are taken. “I sponse to changes in its customers and may still have 0.010" left on the marketplace. Over the years, it has pro- thickness,” Kaplan said, “but I’d duced parts for a range of familiar in- rather have the stock than not. dustries, as well as “a lot of oddball I can go back in and remove it stuff,” Jim said. on a finish pass.” Currently, a maker of demo- After ID boring is com- lition equipment contracts the pleted, the part stays on the machine shop to make a com- lathe, which turns the OD ponent called a bridge. The between the ears to a diam- part looks like a giant bushing eter of 11.498" to 11.500". with two pairs of protruding The shop fabricated an- flanges, or “ears.” In use, two other custom toolholder bridges connect demolition for this operation. The shears, or claws, to the holder is a steel exten- boom on a piece of heavy sion with pockets to hold equipment. square-shank MWLNL Quality Industries makes and MWLNR toolholders the bridge in three sizes, for accepting trigon inserts. with basic finished dimensions After the shoulder and part OD from 12"×17"×7" to 15"×20"×9" and Quality Industries closest to the front counterbore is turned Quality Industries fabricated custom weights from 140 to 260 lbs. The parts tooling to efficiently machine this with one tool, Kaplan loads the extension are machined from near-shape castings of approximately 200-lb. heavy equipment with the opposite hand tool and finishes heat-treated 4340 steel (32 to 37 HRC). component made of steel. the rest of the OD, blending the cuts to- Part runs typically consist of 10 pieces, gether. “I flip it back and forth, removing or five matching pairs. about ⅜" of material per side,” he said. To create concentric bores and coun- of a 2½"-dia. bar with bolt-on heads to Casting variations sometimes require terbores in the part, initial operations hold standard ¾"-square-shank turn- additional facing inside of the ears to take place on an Acra CST 50200 CNC ing tools. “I have three or four different achieve the 3.25" width required between lathe. The casting’s weight and semi- heads with tools in them,” Kaplan said. them. Kaplan said the surface finish re- triangular shape make it a challenge to “That way, when changing tools, I don’t quirement is generally 63 μin. Ra. chuck and spin it. The solution is bolt- have to change the bar itself.” Lathe operations for the midsize on counterweights. For a midsize bridge, The first boring operation opens a bridge consume about 8 hours per part, for example, the counterweight is about 5.499"- to 5.500"-dia. hole about 7" after which it is moved to a Johnford 60 lbs., an amount determined by exper- deep through the part’s center, using a VMC 1124 CNC vertical mill. There, imentation. The weight balances the part TMX coated TPG 322 insert running at the first set of operations involves open- and enables it to spin smoothly. about 125 sfm and a 0.01-ipr feed. Then ing a 9.48"-dia. (±0.010"), 1.25"-deep After indicating a casting to put it on another boring head with a WMNG tri- counterbore on what was the part’s back center in the lathe, the shop faces the gon insert enlarges a 9.040"- to 9.045"- side when it was clamped in the lathe. To part’s front with a Tungaloy CNMG 643 dia., 1⅜"-deep counterbore at the front remove material quickly, the shop rough insert run at 200 sfm, a 0.100" WOC of the part. bores the ID with a Sandvik Coromant and about a 0.025-ipr feed rate. Jim Kap- Another head and tool change permits 2.0"-dia. shell mill tooled with four ½"- dia. button inserts, helically interpolating bores them to a ±0.002" tolerance with a cross-holes and grease holes on a Scharr- in 1/16" steps at 600 rpm and 15 ipm. Criterion or Command boring head. For man horizontal boring mill. CTE Then a 2"-dia., 5-flute, square-shoul- one part, operations on the VMC con- der inserted shell mill removes scallops in sume a full day or a day and a half. For more information about Quality the part wall left by the roughing cutter, Final part operations consist of drilling Industries Inc., call (216 ) 961-5566. leaving 0.010" to 0.015" stock for fin- ishing. The mill’s square shoulder also forms a 90° corner in the counterbore’s bottom and establishes its depth.