all physical dimensions on everything that goes out of our door,” Brader said. “Everything that leaves BHI Corp. is 100% inspected, each dimension of each part, and archived.” Safety isn’t the only driver in quality, though. Offshore drill- ing platforms cost more than $200,000 per hour to operate, so a failure of a critical part at the bottom of the well, such as the components for perforating guns BHI produces, can make a rig useless for days at a time.
Okuma’s larger horizontal lathes meet increasingly stringent requirements for oil and gas.
tion requirements as comparable to those for nuclear-powered submarines. “We maintain and digitally archive a record on
Brader also confirmed two trends—bigger parts and the need to automate. Competitive pressures from overseas, coupled with an apparent shortage of skilled machinists, is pushing him to automate. “Machines with toolchangers, mul- tiple spindles, multiple axes—you put the part in and push the button, and it comes out complete with lathe and mill work all at once, that is becoming attractive,” Brader explains. “It needs to run 24/7.”
BHI Corp. received equipment that meets these goals from Methods Machine Tools Inc. (Sudbury, MA) via their