The Overview:
To maintain its competitive edge, a market-leading firefighting equipment manufacturer needed to save time and labor while producing dozens of parts of different sizes and shapes. The company runs more than 30 part numbers from raw bar stock and forgings.
The Situation:
The company makes low to medium volumes of many different parts and used multiple setups across multiple machine platforms. A couple of parts required five different setups across several machines. Between all the different set-ups, the inefficiencies of manual loading, lack of skilled labor, and excessive floor space required for all those machines, the company realized they could improve this process.
The Solution:
The parts the company manufactures have different features including many hole and thread sizes on center and across the OD. The challenge was how to combine all these time-consuming setups with multiple, differing parts into one cell that could also run bar and forgings. Muratec has in-house capability to customize solutions for manufacturers. The company added two Muratec MT200GT3 gantry loaded, twin spindle, 3-turret lathes with bar-loaders. Talk about a “job shop in a box.” The bar loader runs stock from ½” up to 3” and the gantry not only unloads some of their larger, more delicate parts, but also loads and unloads forgings with odd shapes to machine a complex valve set. The three turrets with live tooling and Y-axis, with 42 tool stations in all, eliminated the need to change drills, taps or different cutting tools when going from part to part.
The Result:
With such flexible automation, the MT200GT3 provided an all-in-one solution, with bar and chuck capabilities. This enables the manufacturer to run all part numbers and accommodate material-size changes with simple changeovers. With automated deburring, the manufacturer’s workers no longer have to complete this task by hand. Muratec’s MT series machines have a robot unloader and exit conveyor as standard, which ensures bar-fed parts are handled with care. When heavy brass parts need to be unloaded, the gantry is the better option due to the mass of the parts. Of course, the gantry is also used for the odd-shaped forgings.
The Bottom Line:
Muratec provided a solution that eliminated hundreds of man hours in a much smaller footprint. Because of the built-in automation, the machines run unattended. This company saw a 5X increase in production, with a cycle-time improvement from 3.5 parts an hour to one part completed every 4 minutes.
Products Used:
