Turning into a faster shop; Customer demands for faster cycle times prompted a shop to buy a new machine; Now it's saving days or production time on single jobs.

When a shop's machines are not keeping up with its workload due to customer demand, a change is in order. Oftentimes, a new purchase is needed to speed-up the shop.

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Lanese Quality Tool, Centerville, OH, which began as a start-up, has been producing parts using bed mills and lathes for customers in various industries including robotics, printing equipment, automotive, aeorspace, and motor manufacturing.

Owner Mark Lanese's livelihood depends on precision and quick turnover because his customers are relying on Lean Manufacturing demands.

The lack of the ability of the company's existing two-axis flat-bed lathe with a manual four-position tool post to keep up with productivity demands made it hard to compete because of slow cycle times.

That's why Lanese bought a TM8 slant-bed CNC turning center from Hurco Co., Inc., Indianapolis, IN.

Lanese was able to pick up the conversational programming the first day and was producing parts the next. Now, he runs 100 to 500 piece jobs with the company saving days--not just hours--of production time on single jobs.

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Dramatic Differences

The level of automation in the TM8 slant-bed lathe with full auto turret reduced the company's cycle times and has freed Lanese for work on other jobs or to generate new ones.

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In his third job run on the new turning center, Lanese reduced cycle times. On a 20-piece job that would have normally required programming and reprogramming, as well as Lanese having to stay with the machine through the entire process to make sure the cuts were consistent on each piece and to change tools or fix broken pieces, Lanese spent 20 minutes programming and each piece took just three minutes to complete with the TM8. There was no need to tweak the program.

With the older lathes, programming might be the same, but each piece would take 10 to 15 minutes to complete and he'd have to inspect each piece for variations.

Another part required multiple inside diameters, two grooves, and five different outside diameters using 304 stainless bar stock with a total run of 250 pieces. Using his existing flat-bed lathe, the cycle time was 40 minutes for each piece since every tool change was manual. The total job time was 150 hours. Using the TM8, the job took 40 minutes to program and eight minutes to process each part--a total of 33 hours, and a time savings of 78 percent. The TM8 saved the shop almost five days of machining time--time that can be spent working on other projects. Hurco Co.,. Inc.

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