Once an optical retailer with nearly 3,000 outlets in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, Cole National Corporation was acquired by Italy's Luxottica S.p.A. in 2004. Luxottica proceeded to fold Cole's operations into its North American Retail Group, and while Cole's holdings (such as Pearle Vision) continued to thrive, the Cole structure was dissolved. Over the course of its history, Cole National had dabbled in specialty retail ventures ranging from key cutting services to children's toys to cookie-baking to shoe repair and watchbands. Optical retail, however, began to play a large role in the company's strategy in 1996 when it acquired Pearle Inc. in a deal that made it the second-largest optical retailer in the United States. In 2004, at the time of the Luxottica acquisition, the company operated as a leading provider of vision care products and services—including managed vision care programs—and personalized gifts through its Things Remembered stores.
Early History
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Company namesake and guiding light Joseph E. Cole was born in Cleveland in 1915, the youngest of nine children. He started his retail career with Cleveland's National Key Company in 1935 at the age of 20. He left National Key nine years later to establish the key division of Curtis Industries, another Cleveland business.
Cole's first key shop was set up in the parking lot of a local Sears, Roebuck & Co. store that same year. By the end of the decade, Cole had built his little sideline into America's second-largest key retailer. The self-made entrepreneur was coronated "king of keys" in 1950, when he acquired National Key and Curtis' key division, the industry's two top players. The newly unified firm took the name of its larger constituent, National Key. (Although National Key was founded in 1932, Cole National claimed 1944 as its inaugural year.)
Joe Cole's key-selling concept was predicated on the idea that keymaking was a highly specialized, service-oriented business. While mass retailers wanted a share of this segment's high profit margins, they did not want to deal with the equally high level of training, service, and inventory control it demanded. Cole leased space from such leading department stores as Sears, Roebuck and Co., Montgomery Ward, and Kresge's. He then installed key-making machines, trained store employees to cut keys, and oversaw the operations' complex 3,000-unit inventory. While Cole neither manufactured keys nor owned stores, Cole found a profitable niche in providing its services to customers and retailers.
A company executive would later characterize Cole's counters as "an oasis of service in a sea of self-service." The tiny selling areas emerged as the most productive areas—in terms of profits per square foot—in some stores. During the 1950s, the company expanded into the manufacture and sale of key chains and jewelry, and launched a while-you-wait shoe repair division.
Public Offering Leads to Growth in the 1960s
The explosion of automotive and home sales in the postwar era made expansion of the replacement key industry virtually inevitable. Less than a decade after assuming the helm of National Key, Joe Cole increased sales fourfold, from $2.33 million in 1950 to $10.52 million in 1959. When the firm went public that year, it sold out its entire offering in one day. The Cole family retained a 25 percent stake in their company, which by that time was netting over $635,000 annually.
That same year, Cole tested a new concept in optical retailing, establishing an eyewear counter within space leased from a Detroit Montgomery Ward store. This venture was based on the same concept as the company's key business. Company strategists recognized that mass retailers had the traffic, but not the expertise, to run such an operation. Masco Optical became the foundation of a chain of optical counters that numbered over 150 locations by the end of the 1960s. Optical centers had become Cole National's largest division by 1964, contributing about half of annual sales.
Although CNC retained a focus on retailing, it also diversified into manufacturing during the 1960s. It acquired Sterling Industries, a Cleveland manufacturer of aluminum, steel and plastic products in 1961, thereby winning an exclusive contract with Welcome Wagon. In 1966 Cole National merged with Susan Crane, producers of giftwrap, and acquired the Gene Upton Co., manufacturers of self-adhesive metal letters and numbers. Two years later it acquired Manco, Inc., a manufacturer of Topps and Everbest brand watchbands. The Manco purchase included Canadian, British, and Japanese retail outlets. Griffon Cutlery Corporation, a marketer of manicure tools, was added to the roster in 1969. These acquisitions more than quadrupled Cole National's sales to over $40 million, but also invited speculation from analysts that the company had over-extended itself. In 1970, in fact, the retail conglomerate's profits declined by half.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Company uses CAM to bring machining in-house
For any company that designs new products, communicating its designs outside of its walls is always a source of anxiety. Outsiders who get proprietary information can use it to become a competitor.
This is the main reason why Jeff Smith, president of Triad Solutions LLC (Moorpark, California), decided to do some of his own machining in-house. The company made this transition without hiring a machinist, without making a large capital investment and without undergoing a big learning curve. Even though the shop had no machining experience, it has been able to machine its own parts quickly and efficiently, thanks, in large part, to the intuitiveness and accessibility of CNC technology today.We realized the most important thing for us to do is maintain complete control of certain critical parts that have earned us a lot of business," Mr. Smith explains. "We didn't want to reveal the details to competitors or vendors."
Triad is a developer of cryogenic test dewars, which are metal containers made like a vacuum bottle that allow infrared sensors and arrays to be tested at very cold temperatures. The shop machines the dewars' vacuum interfaces for electrical circuits, as well as internal components such as cold pedestals, heat-switch components, light baffles, device sockets and heater enclosures. It also prototypes parts for new designs. The company's customer base includes high-tech aerospace companies that work with infrared sensors and universities that require these devices to research materials.
Mr. Smith knew that he would have to find a CAM software program that would allow direct-to-NC-programming from 3D designs. At the time, the company was happy using TurboCAD, a program developed by IMSI (Novato, California) that allows the user to manipulate AutoCAD drawings. So when the time came, Mr. Smith inquired about the company's CAM capability.
With this new CAM capability, the shop uses a benchtop three-axis CNC milling machine from Taig (Chandler, Arizona).
After implementing TurboCADCAM, the company started producing parts within a couple of weeks. During that time, employees had to learn the specifics about formatting the software to work with the CNC machine. Then they had to optimize the machining steps to produce quality parts, which Mr. Smith says took time to perfect. "We produced many a scrap part in the process because of our ignorance in several areas, mainly with machine setup and proper settings for the material being machined," he says.
The company is now capable of machining 20 percent of its own parts that it couldn't machine without the CAM application. The company did not have to hire any more people to add to its five-person staff, nor did it have to purchase more than one CNC machine.
Although it didn't take the staff long to get up to speed with the new software, Mr. Smith explains that the company isn't working with complex parts, exotic materials or tight tolerances. The shop mainly machines aluminum, and tolerances are normally in the range of 0.005 inch.
Every job at the shop begins with the design of a product requested by a customer, typically in the form of written specifications. The shop translates the specifications into a 3D model that it reviews with the customer prior to fabrication.
Now that Triad has been machining parts for a while, it has discovered a range of benefits that go beyond protecting its own designs. Not only does the software aid in keeping company costs down, it also has improved Triad's customer service. For example, job turnaround time has improved because instead of sending a design out to be machined, it's possible to machine a part in one day. "We have literally talked about the design of a part with a customer and delivered the finished part all in the same day," Mr. Smith explains. "It takes maybe half an hour to set up the material on the machine, and then it's ready to go."
Repairing a customer's part is also much quicker in-house. A repair could take as long as 2 weeks when Triad outsourced its machining, but now the company can make its repairs on the spot.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Software is the CNC - includes related article on retrofits - computer numerical control
Almost every longstanding shop has had a machine like this - good iron but the controller is shot. The difference is that Melling Manufacturing Group in Jackson, Michigan, was able to bring their vertical machining center back to life. And it didn't take an expensive maintenance program. All it took was replacing the old hardware-based CNC with a software-based system, running on a mail-order personal computer. This PC control not only resurrected the machine tool, but it also lets the machine run better than it ever did with the old controller.The way it was, the most we could get for that VMC as a trade-in was its scrap value," said Melling President Dave Horthrop. This 45-man shop had owned the machine since 1985, and relied on it for years. But over time, the control unit had experienced its share of problems, with downtime getting longer and longer and repair bills going higher and higher.
Even when it was running, the machine was very difficult to program. The proprietary control was badly out-dated and no longer supported by the builder.
"Eventually it got to the point where, at best, we could use it only as a programmable drill press. Even at that, our machinists avoided using this machine as much as possible - most of the time it just took up valuable floor space," Mr. Horthrop recalls.
Cole National Corporation
Once an optical retailer with nearly 3,000 outlets in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, Cole National Corporation was acquired by Italy's Luxottica S.p.A. in 2004. Luxottica proceeded to fold Cole's operations into its North American Retail Group, and while Cole's holdings (such as Pearle Vision) continued to thrive, the Cole structure was dissolved. Over the course of its history, Cole National had dabbled in specialty retail ventures ranging from key cutting services to children's toys to cookie-baking to shoe repair and watchbands. Optical retail, however, began to play a large role in the company's strategy in 1996 when it acquired Pearle Inc. in a deal that made it the second-largest optical retailer in the United States. In 2004, at the time of the Luxottica acquisition, the company operated as a leading provider of vision care products and services—including managed vision care programs—and personalized gifts through its Things Remembered stores.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Software is the CNC - includes related article on retrofits - computer numerical control
Imagine a computer numerical control (CNC) system set free of proprietary hardware. Two shops discuss their experiences with software-based machine controllers.
The controller was as good as dead. The machine it was on couldn't even be traded in.
Almost every longstanding shop has had a machine like this - good iron but the controller is shot. The difference is that Melling Manufacturing Group in Jackson, Michigan, was able to bring their vertical machining center back to life. And it didn't take an expensive maintenance program. All it took was replacing the old hardware-based CNC with a software-based system, running on a mail-order personal computer. This PC control not only resurrected the machine tool, but it also lets the machine run better than it ever did with the old controller.
"The way it was, the most we could get for that VMC as a trade-in was its scrap value," said Melling President Dave Horthrop. This 45-man shop had owned the machine since 1985, and relied on it for years. But over time, the control unit had experienced its share of problems, with downtime getting longer and longer and repair bills going higher and higher.
Even when it was running, the machine was very difficult to program. The proprietary control was badly out-dated and no longer supported by the builder.
"Eventually it got to the point where, at best, we could use it only as a programmable drill press. Even at that, our machinists avoided using this machine as much as possible - most of the time it just took up valuable floor space," Mr. Horthrop recalls
the shop found the new CNC, which made the turnaround possible, a little over two years ago. Called OpenCNC and produced.by Manufacturing Data Systems Inc. (MDSI) of Ann Arbor, Michigan, this CNC is a software-based system that uses a standard, off-the-shelf personal computer (PC) running a standard CNC software product. Only this software is proprietary; everything else is entirely independent of computer hardware. As soon as the old CNC was replaced with the new, this same machine was running, and running at faster feed rates and better accuracies than it did when brand new. It has become a very productive resource on the shop floor and there is no hesitation among operators when they are assigned to this machine.
"Besides turning what we thought was just a piece of junk into a valuable production asset, software-based CNCs are going to help us get into a new business that we couldn't otherwise compete in," says Mr. Horthrop.
A Different Kind Of CNC
Mr. Horthrop had heard about the new kind of CNC from Great Lakes Industry, Inc., a company also located in Jackson, near Ann Arbor in the southeastern corner of the state. GLI had retrofit several of its machine tools with these software-based CNCs. Almost out of desperation, Mr. Horthrop visited GLI to check it out. What he saw appeared to be the answer to the problems with his shop's VMC, even though the retrofit CNCs he looked at were radically different from the CNCs he was used to encountering. With little to lose, he had the old CNC replaced on the VMC in August, 1995.
The new CNC runs on an office-grade PC interfaced directly to the existing servo system of the machine tool. There is no separate motion control card, programmable logic controller, or other hardware in or attached to the PC. It has standard processors inside, exactly the way it came out of the box.
What it does have is software designed and written to allow an off-the-shelf PC to function as a CNC. This software handles everything that a CNC normally handles, such as the human-machine interface and I/O control, but it also closes the servo loop, a task usually relegated to add-on hardware such as a motion control card in some CNCs using a PC platform.
The reason Melling's VMC is now performing better than ever is that the old control did not have the processing power to keep up with the full potential of the axis drives on this particular machine. The drives' speed and accuracy were limited by the inability of the old CNC to process motion commands and position feedback signals very quickly. The new CNC is considerably faster.
"And when faster and more powerful PCs become available, we can upgrade by simply swapping out the old for the new," notes Mr. Horthrop. "The same control software will be loaded on the new PC. Likewise, if the control software is upgraded, the hardware will not prevent us from moving to the new version."
Hardware Independence
Having CNCs that are completely independent of hardware is an important consideration for both Melling and GLI, though their reasons are different. "We are interested in adding capacity to manufacture timing sprockets and similar workpieces for our parent company," explains Mr. Horthrop at Melling. "But we can't justify the cost of new equipment to produce these parts competitively in a mature market where margins are very low. The problem with used equipment is the controllers. They're either outdated to start with or if they're not, getting repair parts or future upgrades may not be easy or affordableWednesday, June 6, 2007
Upgrade Grinding Machines�Precision Balancing & Analyzing, Booth 6327 - Brief Article
he company is now offering a complete package to upgrade grinding machines with belt-driven grinding spindles to wide speed range high frequency spindles. Due to today's production requirements that demand machines handle a wide range of parts, requiring constant changing of grinding wheel speeds, the company developed a new service package. With the new upgrade service package a company can replace the several belt-driven spindles on a machine with one or two high frequency spindles and handle the jabs that require power and stiffness at 5,000 rpm and have speed capability to 30,000 or 72,000 rpm.The package is complete with a control station that includes the high frequency drive, lubrication unit, chiller Unit and control interface for CNC or manual control of functions. The control station is mounted on a roll around platform that occupies a minimum amount of floor space and can be conveniently located. Each package is configured to meet specific customer requirements.
Portable CMMs speed turbomachinery repair
Repairing steam turbines is all about efficiency, quality, and precision. Customers in the petrochemical, oil and gas, and power-generation businesses may be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day if a key piece of turbomachinery is down. And, for equipment that may weigh several tons, rotate at high speeds, and run at high temperatures, quality is an absolute requirement.
To add to the challenge, there are almost never original drawings to go by, at least not for independent repair companies such as Hickham Industries (La Porte, TX). A unit of Sulzer Turbomachinery Services, Hickham claims to be the largest and most diverse such facility in North America.More often than not, drawings have been lost over the years. Even when available, they may not be very helpful. Because of modifications made during manufacturing, no two pieces of turbomachinery are ever exactly the same-even if they have identical model numbers. Problems are multiplied by the effects of wear and corrosion; overheating and crashes that leave key components bent, cracked, or broken; and multiple rebuilds.
In light of these challenges, Hickham personnel have become experts in reverse engineering. Work at La Porte always starts with careful measurement using portable coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) to establish nominal dimensions.
"The first step is to establish what we have, where we are, what we know and do not know, and what we have to do," project engineer Jaime Valdez explains. "For that, the portable arms are essential."
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Hickham has conventional CMMs, but most of the machinery it refurbishes is too big to be dimensioned anywhere but out on the shop floor. For that task, the company uses portable arm CMMs from Romer/ CimCore (Farmington Hills, MI). Hickham purchased four of the company's 3000i arms in early 2002-three with a 9' (2.7-m) measuring envelope, and one with a 12' (3.7-m) envelope. Hickham is now looking at adding accessories such as Romer's Linear Rail and GridLok systems to further expand measuring envelope and versatility.
"These are close-tolerance, high-speed, high-horsepower, high-temperature machines that generate high revenues for our clients," explains project manager Dave Dixon. "With equipment like this, the margin for any type of error is very small and the price of an error is extremely high. The Romer arm is one of Hickham's key tools to verify our efforts in maximizing the machine's output and minimizing the chance for error."
The portable arms are used to measure casings, shafts, shaft supports, disks, diaphragms, and bladed turbine rotors, plus impellers for centrifugal compressors. "Data from our reverse engineering efforts supports all the key decisions on what repairs are needed, how they will be done, how long it will take, and which parts must be replaced," Valdez explains. "Also very important is getting measurements quickly."
Speed is a factor in Hickham's success. Turbomachinery repair is a competitive business, and jobs are taken on fixed-price bids with demanding delivery times. "On one rush job, we had just 27 days to disassemble the entire turbine, dimension it, weld the case and repair cracks, fix the rotors, repair a lot of the blades, and fix the stationary parts," Valdez recalls.
"With the portable CMMs we can get axial and linear measurements-bearing areas, rings, stators, and vanes-all at the same time with just a few quick changes in the setups," explains operator Jesse Haver. "We do it all with just one man rather than two or even three. It will take eight man-hours rather than 32."
According to Haver, the device's reverse engineering software aids data collection. "One thing about the arm's software, PowerInspect, is the ease with which reference planes can be changed even after points have been gathered," he points out. "Often, we need to be able to relocate geometry planes and move points between them. With PowerInspect, there's no need to go back and remeasure. We know the data was good." All dimensional measurements are checked at least three times by Hickham personnel in various departments, he adds.
Accurate measurements made with the portable CMMs mean Hickham machinists no longer do trial-and-error machining.
Surfaces measured range from simple flats and arcs to volute surfaces of centrifugal pump impellers. "Our machinists then cut these parts to our numbers," Haver says. "The accurate measurements mean they no longer have to do trial-and-error machining. We can now do in two days what sometimes took weeks."
Rotating stages of turbines are often up to 52'' (1.3 m) diam, and the full assemblies may be 35' (10.7 m) long. "But, we are often working in confined spaces, and the arm's almost unlimited rotation is a big help," Valdez says. "It always takes a while to get the measuring setup oriented and maneuvered into just the right position and locked down.
To add to the challenge, there are almost never original drawings to go by, at least not for independent repair companies such as Hickham Industries (La Porte, TX). A unit of Sulzer Turbomachinery Services, Hickham claims to be the largest and most diverse such facility in North America.More often than not, drawings have been lost over the years. Even when available, they may not be very helpful. Because of modifications made during manufacturing, no two pieces of turbomachinery are ever exactly the same-even if they have identical model numbers. Problems are multiplied by the effects of wear and corrosion; overheating and crashes that leave key components bent, cracked, or broken; and multiple rebuilds.
In light of these challenges, Hickham personnel have become experts in reverse engineering. Work at La Porte always starts with careful measurement using portable coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) to establish nominal dimensions.
"The first step is to establish what we have, where we are, what we know and do not know, and what we have to do," project engineer Jaime Valdez explains. "For that, the portable arms are essential."
Advertisement
Hickham has conventional CMMs, but most of the machinery it refurbishes is too big to be dimensioned anywhere but out on the shop floor. For that task, the company uses portable arm CMMs from Romer/ CimCore (Farmington Hills, MI). Hickham purchased four of the company's 3000i arms in early 2002-three with a 9' (2.7-m) measuring envelope, and one with a 12' (3.7-m) envelope. Hickham is now looking at adding accessories such as Romer's Linear Rail and GridLok systems to further expand measuring envelope and versatility.
"These are close-tolerance, high-speed, high-horsepower, high-temperature machines that generate high revenues for our clients," explains project manager Dave Dixon. "With equipment like this, the margin for any type of error is very small and the price of an error is extremely high. The Romer arm is one of Hickham's key tools to verify our efforts in maximizing the machine's output and minimizing the chance for error."
The portable arms are used to measure casings, shafts, shaft supports, disks, diaphragms, and bladed turbine rotors, plus impellers for centrifugal compressors. "Data from our reverse engineering efforts supports all the key decisions on what repairs are needed, how they will be done, how long it will take, and which parts must be replaced," Valdez explains. "Also very important is getting measurements quickly."
Speed is a factor in Hickham's success. Turbomachinery repair is a competitive business, and jobs are taken on fixed-price bids with demanding delivery times. "On one rush job, we had just 27 days to disassemble the entire turbine, dimension it, weld the case and repair cracks, fix the rotors, repair a lot of the blades, and fix the stationary parts," Valdez recalls.
"With the portable CMMs we can get axial and linear measurements-bearing areas, rings, stators, and vanes-all at the same time with just a few quick changes in the setups," explains operator Jesse Haver. "We do it all with just one man rather than two or even three. It will take eight man-hours rather than 32."
According to Haver, the device's reverse engineering software aids data collection. "One thing about the arm's software, PowerInspect, is the ease with which reference planes can be changed even after points have been gathered," he points out. "Often, we need to be able to relocate geometry planes and move points between them. With PowerInspect, there's no need to go back and remeasure. We know the data was good." All dimensional measurements are checked at least three times by Hickham personnel in various departments, he adds.
Accurate measurements made with the portable CMMs mean Hickham machinists no longer do trial-and-error machining.
Surfaces measured range from simple flats and arcs to volute surfaces of centrifugal pump impellers. "Our machinists then cut these parts to our numbers," Haver says. "The accurate measurements mean they no longer have to do trial-and-error machining. We can now do in two days what sometimes took weeks."
Rotating stages of turbines are often up to 52'' (1.3 m) diam, and the full assemblies may be 35' (10.7 m) long. "But, we are often working in confined spaces, and the arm's almost unlimited rotation is a big help," Valdez says. "It always takes a while to get the measuring setup oriented and maneuvered into just the right position and locked down.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
PC-based CNC revives vintage machines
SHOP SOLUTIONS
They just don't build machine tools like they used to, according to Andy Vige, president of Machine Specialty and Mfg. (Youngsville, LA).
Vige couldn't find a new machine tool that could take the punishment that one of his 20-- year-old Warner & Swasey lathes could. He'd been buying used W&S machines for years, then driving them hard to make pipe pressure fittings and flanges for the oil industry. The iron in them was still good, but the original controls were not. Aging hardware-based CNCs on the lathes had become obsolete, and because they were proprietary, closed systems, the controls were starting to cost the company plenty.
"When a motion board goes on one of these, it takes weeks to repair or replace them," Vige says.
"Frequently, the original control company can't help us at all. When a machine goes down, and you fail to produce 300-400 pieces of flange that you would normally sell during the day, you feel it." To top it off, Machine Specialty and its competitors were in the middle of a two-year price war, and the company couldn't afford to lose ground.
The solution Vige found was so successful that, 18 months later, he has transformed almost every CNC machine he owns and improved production by 30%. And he did it without buying a single new machine.
That solution was OpenCNC software from MDSI (Ann Arbor, MI), an open-architecture CNC package that uses no proprietary hardware or motion control cards. Because it runs on off-the-shelf PCs and Microsoft Windows operating systems, users are not locked into proprietary arrangements for hardware, control repair, or control upgrades.
Vige credits the package with helping him:
* Reinvigorate his old machine tools
* Gain access to machine data that helps him manage his company
* Avoid having to buy new machines
* Gain control over production
* Stay competitive.
* OpenCNC gave me a jump on everybody I compete against," he says.
Machine Specialty has been in business more than 20 years. With about 75 employees, the company makes pipe Ranges and fittings for a variety of oil and gas applications, from deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to the North Sea, where they perform critical applications such as containing high-corrosion fluids or withstanding pressure of up to 20,000 psi (138 MPa). The business is competitive and global.
As company president and coowner, Vige constantly looks for manufacturing solutions to help him optimize profits and resource utilization. Machine downtime costs money-$8500 per day per machine, Vige estimates. He figured his Warner & Swasey lathes were down about 20% of the time with control problems. When he realized he was spending $2,000-- $3,000 per machine per month to keep the old controls going, plus what it was costing him every time a machine stopped, enough was enough.
Besides upgrading his old machines, Vige was looking for answers to several manufacturing problems. He wanted to decrease cycle times. He wanted a control that in-house maintenance personnel could service. He wanted to use existing servos and drives. And most of all, he wanted access to data.
"I needed a better tracking system for what was going on with each machine," he says. "How long is the machine running each day? How long does it take to do a batch of parts? How many parts can be done in one day per machine? I can't get this information from traditional controls."
When Vige heard about OpenCNC, he knew it was what he wanted. "It was software that let me use any drives that I wanted or any PC," he said. "I didn't have to buy a whole package. I could buy the best drives or the best PC I wanted. The MDSI control doesn't care which one you use. It's software, so we can put it into any package we choose."
The first machine retrofitted with the software was a W&S 2 SC lathe. Eldon Richardson, an MDSI integrator out of Meridian, MS, performed the retrofit, which involved pulling all the wiring from the old cabinet, removing the old control, installing OpenCNC on a new PC, rewiring the panel, and programming the machine. The old servos and drives were in good shape, so he left those in place.
Machine Specialty machinist Mike Thibodeaux worked with Richardson to learn about the software. Since that first machine, they have refined the retrofit process so that Thibodeaux and other Machine Specialty employees strip out the old control and remove all the wiring. At his shop, Richardson builds a bolt-on case for the monitor and PC, loads the OpenCNC onto the PC, and programs it. He then takes the completed package back to Machine Specialty, where he re-wires the machine and puts the new control in place.
Richardson says the process goes quickly if existing servos and drives are kept, which is what Machine Specialty chose to do on most of its machines. "The first machine took about two weeks," he says. "Now, it's much faster. We have actually taken four machines down at the same time, retrofitted them with OpenCNC, and had all four of them up and cutting parts in just eight days."
They just don't build machine tools like they used to, according to Andy Vige, president of Machine Specialty and Mfg. (Youngsville, LA).
Vige couldn't find a new machine tool that could take the punishment that one of his 20-- year-old Warner & Swasey lathes could. He'd been buying used W&S machines for years, then driving them hard to make pipe pressure fittings and flanges for the oil industry. The iron in them was still good, but the original controls were not. Aging hardware-based CNCs on the lathes had become obsolete, and because they were proprietary, closed systems, the controls were starting to cost the company plenty.
"When a motion board goes on one of these, it takes weeks to repair or replace them," Vige says.
"Frequently, the original control company can't help us at all. When a machine goes down, and you fail to produce 300-400 pieces of flange that you would normally sell during the day, you feel it." To top it off, Machine Specialty and its competitors were in the middle of a two-year price war, and the company couldn't afford to lose ground.
The solution Vige found was so successful that, 18 months later, he has transformed almost every CNC machine he owns and improved production by 30%. And he did it without buying a single new machine.
That solution was OpenCNC software from MDSI (Ann Arbor, MI), an open-architecture CNC package that uses no proprietary hardware or motion control cards. Because it runs on off-the-shelf PCs and Microsoft Windows operating systems, users are not locked into proprietary arrangements for hardware, control repair, or control upgrades.
Vige credits the package with helping him:
* Reinvigorate his old machine tools
* Gain access to machine data that helps him manage his company
* Avoid having to buy new machines
* Gain control over production
* Stay competitive.
* OpenCNC gave me a jump on everybody I compete against," he says.
Machine Specialty has been in business more than 20 years. With about 75 employees, the company makes pipe Ranges and fittings for a variety of oil and gas applications, from deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to the North Sea, where they perform critical applications such as containing high-corrosion fluids or withstanding pressure of up to 20,000 psi (138 MPa). The business is competitive and global.
As company president and coowner, Vige constantly looks for manufacturing solutions to help him optimize profits and resource utilization. Machine downtime costs money-$8500 per day per machine, Vige estimates. He figured his Warner & Swasey lathes were down about 20% of the time with control problems. When he realized he was spending $2,000-- $3,000 per machine per month to keep the old controls going, plus what it was costing him every time a machine stopped, enough was enough.
Besides upgrading his old machines, Vige was looking for answers to several manufacturing problems. He wanted to decrease cycle times. He wanted a control that in-house maintenance personnel could service. He wanted to use existing servos and drives. And most of all, he wanted access to data.
"I needed a better tracking system for what was going on with each machine," he says. "How long is the machine running each day? How long does it take to do a batch of parts? How many parts can be done in one day per machine? I can't get this information from traditional controls."
When Vige heard about OpenCNC, he knew it was what he wanted. "It was software that let me use any drives that I wanted or any PC," he said. "I didn't have to buy a whole package. I could buy the best drives or the best PC I wanted. The MDSI control doesn't care which one you use. It's software, so we can put it into any package we choose."
The first machine retrofitted with the software was a W&S 2 SC lathe. Eldon Richardson, an MDSI integrator out of Meridian, MS, performed the retrofit, which involved pulling all the wiring from the old cabinet, removing the old control, installing OpenCNC on a new PC, rewiring the panel, and programming the machine. The old servos and drives were in good shape, so he left those in place.
Machine Specialty machinist Mike Thibodeaux worked with Richardson to learn about the software. Since that first machine, they have refined the retrofit process so that Thibodeaux and other Machine Specialty employees strip out the old control and remove all the wiring. At his shop, Richardson builds a bolt-on case for the monitor and PC, loads the OpenCNC onto the PC, and programs it. He then takes the completed package back to Machine Specialty, where he re-wires the machine and puts the new control in place.
Richardson says the process goes quickly if existing servos and drives are kept, which is what Machine Specialty chose to do on most of its machines. "The first machine took about two weeks," he says. "Now, it's much faster. We have actually taken four machines down at the same time, retrofitted them with OpenCNC, and had all four of them up and cutting parts in just eight days."
Jet Engine Repair Flies High With CNC
CASE HISTORIES OF MANUFACTURING PROBLEM SOLVING
Engine components for Air Force One, aircraft parts riddled with bullet holes, jet engine cases ripped open by ice and other projectiles-these are just some of the repair and overhaul jobs that Component Repair Technologies Inc. (Mentor, OH) has handled in its more than 20 years in business.
CRT was founded in 1985 by Tom Wheeler and Chuck Bart as an independent turbine engine overhaul shop. Over the years, the company has expanded its facility and process capabilities to perform all repair work inhouse. Messrs. Wheeler and Bart pride themselves on their extensive capabilities that enable them to control costs, minimize turn times, and deliver quality work to a customer list that includes major OEMs, commercial air carriers, and large engine shops.
The company, which occupies a 115,000-ft2 (10,683-m2) facility, is segmented into three business units according to product category: cases (turbine sections of engines), rotating workpieces (shafts, disks, and spools), and small parts for both small and large engines. Each unit is set up in cellular configuration with its own machining, assembly, and inspection capabilities.
CRT initially depended on large manual boring machines and manual lathes for its machining. As the need for more complex machining capability became apparent, the company has moved to adopt the latest in CNC technology to improve productivity, quality, and production flexibility.
In 1999 the company expanded its capability to handle large duct replacements and flange replacements in the cases unit. "We needed the ability to contour using CNC technology," explains General Manager Andrew LaTourette.
"You can contour manually, but it's very time-consuming if you don't have the capability to do pick feeds and repetitive back and forth necessary for stock removal." For CRT, this work is especially challenging because the cases are thin-walled and made of high nickel 718 and 625 Inconel. "These are gummy and unforgiving materials," LaTourette points out.
Most of CRT's jobs don't lend themselves to pushing off a lot of stock. Instead, the company does a lot of skim-and-trim finesse machining. "When you are doing flange replacements or replacing large duct segments, you have to keep things round and parallel," LaTourette explains. "The problems crop up when you get to the finish size because the parts will have a residual stress, and that's tricky to machine and keep round-especially when you have �0.003'' [0.08-mm] tolerances on a 43'' [1.1-m] diam."
The need for the capabilities that CNC machining could provide was apparent to CRT. "In the aircraft repair business, we have to stay sharp, offer excellent quality, and really keep pushing ourselves on our process capabilities so we can compete and stay in the game," says LaTourette.
"We're both a job shop and a custom manufacturer. Even though 65% of the parts go through the same work scope, all bets are off because you never know how someone is going to treat an airplane engine. We think of everything as a one-off. Our turnarounds are tight, so the flexibility of our CNC machines is critical," he explains.
Over the last six years, CRT has invested in four CNC machines from Absolute Machine Tools Inc. (Lorain, OH): two You Ji YV-1200ATC vertical turning lathes; a Johnford VMC-1600SHD for its cases unit; and a Johnford DMC-1500H bridge mill, which was recently installed in its small parts unit.
The YV-1200ATCs turn all the angular geometry on duct and flange replacements. "The grooves are whittled out on the You Ji VTLs," says LaTourette. "You plunge the slots, cut to size on the drop, cut the shelves, and once all that cutting is finished, a right-angle head takes over. Then we machine the slots, the scallops with a straight mill, and the hole patterns. We also do the geometry on the other side of the case."
All this work could be done on manual machines with form tools, LaTourette admits, "but not economically or even competitively."
The You Ji machines also helped CRT move certain parts out of the grind room. The company formerly ground a particular hub component to tight tolerances on its ID/OD grinders. Now it single-points the part to size on the You Ji VTLs, reducing grinding time by about 12 hr. The two You Ji VTLs are set up so that only one operator is needed to run both machines.
Grouped next to the two You Ji VTLs is the Johnford VMC-1600SHD. The VMC is equipped with a 31.5'' (800-mm) precision turntable that provides a fourth axis. It also includes right-angle heads that supply a manual fifth axis. The additional axes allow CRT to do bolt circles without changing tools, and the VMC also has probing capability.
The flexibility of the Johnford VMC has allowed CRT to pursue additional duct and flange replacement work. One such job calls for the Johnford to drill 102 holes in a flange for rotation pins and tackle all the scallop work on the part.
"You can do a large flange replacement like this manually and drill all the holes, but not competitively," says LaTourette. "You really have to push the envelope today if you want to stay in business."
Engine components for Air Force One, aircraft parts riddled with bullet holes, jet engine cases ripped open by ice and other projectiles-these are just some of the repair and overhaul jobs that Component Repair Technologies Inc. (Mentor, OH) has handled in its more than 20 years in business.
CRT was founded in 1985 by Tom Wheeler and Chuck Bart as an independent turbine engine overhaul shop. Over the years, the company has expanded its facility and process capabilities to perform all repair work inhouse. Messrs. Wheeler and Bart pride themselves on their extensive capabilities that enable them to control costs, minimize turn times, and deliver quality work to a customer list that includes major OEMs, commercial air carriers, and large engine shops.
The company, which occupies a 115,000-ft2 (10,683-m2) facility, is segmented into three business units according to product category: cases (turbine sections of engines), rotating workpieces (shafts, disks, and spools), and small parts for both small and large engines. Each unit is set up in cellular configuration with its own machining, assembly, and inspection capabilities.
CRT initially depended on large manual boring machines and manual lathes for its machining. As the need for more complex machining capability became apparent, the company has moved to adopt the latest in CNC technology to improve productivity, quality, and production flexibility.
In 1999 the company expanded its capability to handle large duct replacements and flange replacements in the cases unit. "We needed the ability to contour using CNC technology," explains General Manager Andrew LaTourette.
"You can contour manually, but it's very time-consuming if you don't have the capability to do pick feeds and repetitive back and forth necessary for stock removal." For CRT, this work is especially challenging because the cases are thin-walled and made of high nickel 718 and 625 Inconel. "These are gummy and unforgiving materials," LaTourette points out.
Most of CRT's jobs don't lend themselves to pushing off a lot of stock. Instead, the company does a lot of skim-and-trim finesse machining. "When you are doing flange replacements or replacing large duct segments, you have to keep things round and parallel," LaTourette explains. "The problems crop up when you get to the finish size because the parts will have a residual stress, and that's tricky to machine and keep round-especially when you have �0.003'' [0.08-mm] tolerances on a 43'' [1.1-m] diam."
The need for the capabilities that CNC machining could provide was apparent to CRT. "In the aircraft repair business, we have to stay sharp, offer excellent quality, and really keep pushing ourselves on our process capabilities so we can compete and stay in the game," says LaTourette.
"We're both a job shop and a custom manufacturer. Even though 65% of the parts go through the same work scope, all bets are off because you never know how someone is going to treat an airplane engine. We think of everything as a one-off. Our turnarounds are tight, so the flexibility of our CNC machines is critical," he explains.
Over the last six years, CRT has invested in four CNC machines from Absolute Machine Tools Inc. (Lorain, OH): two You Ji YV-1200ATC vertical turning lathes; a Johnford VMC-1600SHD for its cases unit; and a Johnford DMC-1500H bridge mill, which was recently installed in its small parts unit.
The YV-1200ATCs turn all the angular geometry on duct and flange replacements. "The grooves are whittled out on the You Ji VTLs," says LaTourette. "You plunge the slots, cut to size on the drop, cut the shelves, and once all that cutting is finished, a right-angle head takes over. Then we machine the slots, the scallops with a straight mill, and the hole patterns. We also do the geometry on the other side of the case."
All this work could be done on manual machines with form tools, LaTourette admits, "but not economically or even competitively."
The You Ji machines also helped CRT move certain parts out of the grind room. The company formerly ground a particular hub component to tight tolerances on its ID/OD grinders. Now it single-points the part to size on the You Ji VTLs, reducing grinding time by about 12 hr. The two You Ji VTLs are set up so that only one operator is needed to run both machines.
Grouped next to the two You Ji VTLs is the Johnford VMC-1600SHD. The VMC is equipped with a 31.5'' (800-mm) precision turntable that provides a fourth axis. It also includes right-angle heads that supply a manual fifth axis. The additional axes allow CRT to do bolt circles without changing tools, and the VMC also has probing capability.
The flexibility of the Johnford VMC has allowed CRT to pursue additional duct and flange replacement work. One such job calls for the Johnford to drill 102 holes in a flange for rotation pins and tackle all the scallop work on the part.
"You can do a large flange replacement like this manually and drill all the holes, but not competitively," says LaTourette. "You really have to push the envelope today if you want to stay in business."
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