MANITOWOC — For Wisconsin manufacturers to emerge from the recession in a strong position, they might look at Manitowoc Tool & Machining.

All it is taking for the local company is millions of dollars in new technology, more intensive training of the workforce, and “100 percent on time delivery with zero ppm (parts per million) defects,” said Scott Mertens, MTM president.

That means no defects at all, with MTM making parts for everything from locomotive crankcases to satellite circuit boards with tolerances in ten-thousandths of an inch — far less than the diameter of a strand of human hair.

“We are very optimistic,” said Mertens, noting 2008 was a record revenue year for the 45-year-old company with plants on Expo and Clipper drives.

“In January the pipeline turned off, but we engaged our sales force heavily with laser precision, going after new opportunities and current customers to fill capacity,” he said.

MTM has hired 80 workers since June, some called back from layoff, and it will be hiring 15 to 20 more.

The company already had dozens of sophisticated CNC (computer numerically controlled) machines capable of creating parts small enough to fit in the hand to those weighing thousands of pounds made out of aluminum, ductile iron, steel, brass and bronze.

One machine is described as a “Mazak Multipilex 6300Y twin spindle-twin turret 6-axis center with gantry robot.” That translates into parts made with maximum efficiency and conformance to blueprints.

To assure the part — for example 800-pound compressor rotator housings for air conditioning units — meets specs, it is hoisted on to a coordinate measuring machine elevated table.

The new technology, installed at MTM in summer, uses multiple optical probes to assess the physical measurements of the part down to 0.0001 inch, far too small for the naked eye to see any flaw.

Manitowoc instead of Mexico

MTM has customers in the automotive, transportation, medical technology, recreation, heating-ventilation-air condition and defense industries.

http://www.htrnews.com/article/20091118/APC03/311180113/1984/MANlife/Emerging-stronger-from-recession-Manitowoc-Tool-&-Machining

Toolmaking
TTP Plastics by Design Toolroom Division specialises in the production of larger plastic injection moulds to suit our substantial moulding facility. These are built for both their own proprietary products and under contract for other companies for which they undertake injection moulding. Additionally, they do some repetition work on our CNC Lathes and Machining Centres.

Tool Construction
The facility is sited alongside their Plastic Moulding Department allowing for a one stop shop approach delivering a client’s concept right through to reality. This has given them a wealth of experience in all facets of production, allowing their skilled team to value add to their customer’s products while minimising delays due to modifications or breakdowns.

TTP Plastics welcome all enquiries to do with Plastic Moulding whether it is rotational, extrusion or blow moulding as TTP have a wide amount of experience in most moulding processes.

Using the benefits of a state of the art CAD/CAM system, TTP Plastics are able to enhance all tool and product design. They are committed to achieving the best possible outcome for their clients. TTP Plastics by Design has active interest in a range of areas such as:

• Aquaculture
• Furniture
• Materials Handling
• Mining
• Water
• Infrastructure and Construction
• Agriculture

TTP Plastics maintain an ISO9001 Quality System and are a partner in ECOBiz a Queensland government initiative to foster more sustainable business practices

Other Products from TTP Plastics by Design

http://www.ferret.com.au/c/TTP-Plastics-by-Design/Design-And-Construction-Of-Plastic-Machine-Tools-By-TTP-Plastics-By-Design-p20248

Euromac Punch Press users will find the new and expanded 36 page Mate Euromac tooling catalog helpful in planning their fabricating projects.

Euromac Punch Press users will find the new and expanded 36 page Mate Euromac tooling catalog helpful in planning their fabricating projects.

This catalog contains a comprehensive overview of each of the tooling systems that are compatible with the Euromac punch press, including the following.

* Thick Turret - Ultra TEC, Ultra TEC Fully Guided, Ultra TEC Heavy Duty, Ultra Light, Ultra XT, and Original Thick Turret style.

* Trumpf Style - Trumpf standard style, and Mate QuickLock tooling system.

* Multi Tool - tooling to suit Euromac’s exclusive range of four-station, six-station, and 10-station multi tool assemblies.

The Thick Turret ‘Product Selector’ overview of each tooling system compatible with Euromac punch presses has nine different ratings.

They are charted for each tooling system, comparing factors such as quick set up, interchangeability, grind life, ease of use, value and purchase price.

Also included in the new catalog are a full range of forming tools.

These include: cluster tools, countersinks, electrical knockouts, and ventilation louvers with detailed explanations of what each form is used for.

Suggestions for appropriate material type and thickness range for each application are also included along with additional ideas on how to achieve superior results.

Fabricators will find that integrating formed features into sheet metal components using these tools greatly expands their ability to add value to the punching process.

An expanded ‘Tips and Techniques’ section includes recommendations for using forming tools, punching thin and thick materials, punching non-metallic materials, care and maintenance of punch guides, selecting die clearance and calculating punching forces, overcoming stripping problems, overcoming galling, combating material warp, maximizing tool life and much more.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/mep/mep132.html

CNC bed-type milling machine has than paid for itself in the machining of the 32 tonnes of steel for tooling plates used in the robotic fabrication of prison cell doors.

Fern Engineering Systems is using an XYZ SMX 5000 manual/CNC bed mill to machine various sizes of steel tooling plate for a self-contained robotic welding cell.

The bed mill, with solid Meehanite ribbed cast iron construction and induction hardened and ground slides and Turcite-B coated ways, has been in continuous use since its installation.

Owner of Fern, Andrew Beckley said the bed mill had more than paid for itself in the machining of the 32 tonnes of steel needed to produce tooling plates for the robotic welding cell.

The welding cell is for Cell Security, which will produce different designs of cell doors destined for prisons, police stations and other security applications worldwide.

At Welding Security, the tooling plates can be changed in 10 min or less, allowing various designs of cell door to be fabricated quickly and accurately in a wide range of sizes.

Located at Whitebirk, Blackburn, Fern was set up by Andrew Beckley and Paul Jackson in January 2004.

Fern has always had a company policy to control the entire manufacturing process, which is why Fern took delivery in 2007 of the XYZ SMX 5000 manual/CNC bed mill.

The SMX 5000 has a 5.75kW (7.5HP)/5000 rev/min main spindle serving a 1930mm by 356mm table having a load capacity of 850kg.

X- and Y-axis travels are 1524mm by 596mm.

These specifications made the SMX 5000 an ideal choice for the machining of the various sizes of steel tooling plate used in Cell Security’s robotic welding cell.

* Robotic welding cells - on average Fern Engineering Systems builds and ships a bespoke automated welding cell every 8.6 weeks, each one designed as a skid-mounted unit for ease of transportation and installation.

It took less than 12 weeks - from the initial enquiry from Cell Security to delivery on site - and just over 4h for the welding cell to be fully operational.

Before welding cell installation it took up to 10h for Cell Security to construct and manually weld each security door.

The robotic welding cell does the job in as little as 40 min.

Fern employs eight people and Beckley said it is important to maintain the flexibility and fast response of a small business.

This, he adds, requires every member of the team to be multi-skilled.

So, although a control engineer by training, he is equally at home developing and refining the company’s proprietary Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software or machining components for the latest project.

He said: “Engineering companies that we know do good work have XYZ machines and we took note of their recommendations when it came to our choice of machine tool”.

XYZ told manufacturingtalk that it was a demonstration at XYZ Machine Tools’ regional showroom in Blackburn that provided convincing evidence to Fern of the manual/CNC bed mill’s metal removal capability and the ease of use of its ProtoTRAK SMX control.

This latest-generation CNC is deesigned for ‘one-off’ and low volume production.

The CNC uses plain English prompts and requires no learning of codes, allowing an operator with little or no CNC experience to operate the SMX 5000 within a day, said XYZ.

“It is this ease of use that really appeals,” said Beckley, “As it is in line with our own business practice.

We were, for example, awarded a contract by a major automotive parts manufacturer for a system to control 71 automated welding cells after we were able to demonstrate conclusively the flexibility and cost savings achievable with our custom-written Production Management Tools software compared with more expensive off-the-shelf SCADA packages.”.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/xyz/xyz239.html

Over 100 new tooling accessories with improved performance, high-speed CNC specifications and importantly, super competitive prices, range from arbors and centres to collets and holders.

WDS is meeting the changing demands of the machine tool market by introducing over 100 new tooling accessories with improved performance, high-speed CNC specifications and importantly, super competitive prices.

The comprehensive new range includes a wide offering of products from, arbors and centres to collets and holders that are all available on next day delivery.

The new range of machine tool accessories is the most comprehensive offering from a standard parts supplier to date.

It covers over 100 new product lines that include a wide variety of arbors, centres, knurling tools, collets, adapters, chucks and tool holders as well as selection of utility items that range from spacers, adapters to spanners and nuts.

Peter Heselton, Marketing Manager of WDS says the company’s new focus is the result of the changing market for machine tool accessories.

“The standardisation of machine tooling, advances in manufacturing technology and increased demand for the products has created a market that is ideally suited to, and easily satisfied by WDS’s multi-channel, fast delivery approach to product supply”.

‘We have long sold standard parts at highly competitive prices through our extensive paper, CD and on-line catalogues.

We now feel that modern machine tool accessories have reached a similar market position in that they are virtually treated as industrial consumable products.

We have therefore compiled a comprehensive new range of accessories with the introduction of tools to the very latest specifications for the most up-to-date high speed CNC machines at seriously competitive prices and at the same time, reduced the cost of our established products by as much as 80%’.

The existing ranges of tool holders and tooling accessories, including those conforming to DIN 2080 standards have been maintained, but have been significantly reduced in price.

Tool ranges with CNC specifications such as those that meet BT-MAS 403, DIN-C9871/A and VDI standards have been expanded, with many new products lines introduced, all of which have also been subjected to the highly competitive pricing policy.

Along with changing specifications, it has become more common for machine industries to purchase many more accessories to fit multi axis machines and stock for CNC magazines that can hold over 80 tool heads.

WDS has recognised the resulting pressures on costs and used its own manufacturing facilities, high-tech distribution networks and bulk purchasing power to become an extremely price competitive force in the market.

As well as gaining advantages in terms of unit cost, customers using WDS for their machine tool accessories are also set to benefit from the WDS service.

For example, time taken in sourcing can be reduced by referring to WDS expert sales staff who are always on hand to aid specification.

Companies already using WDS can also save on administration costs such as invoicing through consolidating their supplier base.

All tools and components featured in the catalogue are available on next day delivery.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/wds/wds116.html