October 2007 Edition
TURNING CENTERS
Anticipating Needs Leads to Success
Determining what types of machines are needed before the need arises has been a successful strategy for a Rhode Island shop
It takes foresight for a shop to keep customers tempted by the low labor costs of Asia. A New England shop is battling off-shoring through the purchase of a Swiss-type turning center.
The Maier Swiss-type CNC turning center is a 3-part,
9-axis system capable of simultaneous processing on main and backside spindles, using up to 18 tools. Lavigne credits the machine with securing work that would otherwise have been lost to overseas competition.
"In a global marketplace, it's not enough to offer great precision," David Lavigne, president of Lavigne Manufacturing, Inc., Cranston, RI, said. "We must deliver high precision at a favorable price."
Lavigne and his brothers founded the company in 1989. It has grown from a shop of 1,500 ft2 and five employees to a company of 125 people and a 35,000 ft2 facility.
"Often we buy equipment first, anticipating a business need, then find work to fill our additional capacity," Lavigne said. "We're capital-intensive, rather than labor-intensive. In the long run, this saves our customers money."
Reputation for Specialization
Lavigne Manufacturing built a reputation for manufacturing specialized components, such as gear blanks, heat sinks, shafts, and bearings with high precision – on time and at competitive prices.
Last year, Lavigne purchased a Maier Swiss-type CNC turning center, model ML 32D. The three-part, 9-axis system provides simultaneous processing on main and backside spindles, using up to 18 tools, 12 of which are driven.
"We did some research and determined that its efficiency and technology met our needs," Lavigne said.
The company keeps the turning center busy machining parts from bar stock for two important customers. A customer for one of the parts is a pneumatic nail gun manufacturer. The Maier produces the driver, the component that propels the nails.
The customer for the other part makes metal bodies for LED flashlights.
Because each nail gun model requires a different-sized driver and each flashlight model has a unique body size, an individual CNC program is required for each one. Taken together, production of these parts accounts for about 30 percent of Lavigne's sales.
"It's the best possible way to keep this kind of work in the U.S.," Lavigne said of the Maier's performance.
Predicting the Future
With up to three tools in the cut at once, the Maier machine owned by Lavigne Manufacturing, makes short, but precise, work of LED flashlight bodies
As his research predicted when investigating the purchase of the machine, the Swiss-type turning center reduced labor costs by completing four or more machining operations in a single setup. This keeps job costs competitive and enables the company to provide low pricing that keeps customers from overseas off-shore production.
Lavigne estimates business productivity increased 25 percent.
Swiss-type lathes were developed to turn small, complex parts with high precision for the Swiss watchmaking industry. Maier ML ProLine CNC Swiss turning centers, however, can handle bar stock with diameters up to 32mm and provide simultaneous turning and milling/drilling for start-to-finish machining.
Lavigne Manufacturing purchased its Maier turning center from Methods Machine Tools, Inc. Methods has a nationwide network of dealers through which it sells several brands of machining, turning, automation, robotic, and EDM equipment and provides installation, parts, service, and training.
"We bought dozens of machines from Methods, and we thought they would be the best choice to help us with the learning curve for the Maier," Lavigne said. "Some of the training was at Methods, and some was on our own shop floor."
Problems Are No Problem
The driver for a nail gun manufacturer is a part for one of the important customers Lavigne kept from turning to offshore production.
The Swiss-style turning center had few problems, but Lavigne said Methods' response was "outstanding."
When a problem does arise, a Methods service technician usually arrives at Lavigne's shop the same day or the next. Such response times were one of many factors in his decision to purchase the Maier turning center. In fact, he said, with a pending deal with a potential new customer, a bearing manufacturer, he might be in the market for another Maier.
"The bottom line is to make high-quality parts cost-effectively," Lavigne said. "The Maier's accuracy, speed, and versatility, together with the technical help we count on from Methods, have enabled us to capture work that otherwise would have gone overseas."
Methods Machine Tools, Inc.
Visit www.rsleads.com/710mn-205 for more information.
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