On the Shop Floor
drilling and fracking wells, it’s just that there’s so much equip- ment out and no one needs new equipment, for what looks like at least a year. I think we’re going to start working with Caterpillar in the next month or so. Tis division of Caterpil- lar builds drilling machines that are track mounted. I think these machines are used more for mining, which is directly related to oil & gas types of applications. “Regarding materials, the oil & gas business is prob-
ably 70% 4140, and some of it is heat-treated up to 38 R. We outsource the heat-treating. We have just started doing some black oxide and zinc phosphate plating.”
Value for the Dollar Kulbeth said he recently went to South Korea with his sup-
plier, Hillary Machinery (Plano, TX), to tour Hyundai WIA’s machine tool production plants in Changwon. While there he wanted to learn more about their Hyundai’s vertical lathe offerings, specifically the LV800M. “We had a specific oil & gas part in mind that was quite large and required both turn- ing and milling operations that would ideally be machined in one setup. Our visit to Korea really paid off,” he says. “During our tour we were able to see the LV Series vertical turning centers being assembled in what was a very modern, clean and well-organized plant. Te LV800M is now installed and has met our challenge in both its capacity to machine large, heavy parts, and its capability to perform both turning and milling operations in a single setup.” Tere are other factors that Kulbeth finds attractive about
the machines. “What I am most happy with,” he said, “is what you get from Hyundai for the dollar you’re spending. You can compare them with more expensive machines from Germany or Japan, but those brands offer no additional ca- pabilities that you can’t get on the Hyundai machines. I guess it boils down to value for the dollar, and that is what I like about them. Plus, these machines are very good at holding quality. We consistently hold ±0.0005" [0.0127 mm] all the
Typical Oil Patch Parts Kulbeth said that some of the parts they do are 12.5" (317.5-mm) in diameter, 48" (1220-mm) long with a 6" (152- mm) through hole and weigh 1200 lb (540 kg). When finish- machined, they will have cut off 600 lb (270 kg) of chips. Tat’s probably the biggest part they’re currently doing. Cycle time: four hours. Tese 48" parts are part of a manifold system for fracking, and they are run on a Hyundai WIA L400LMC. “Te LV800 vertical lathes are used to machine check valve
bodies,” Kulbeth said, “which are 10" [254-mm] in diameter and 14" [356-mm] long. Te part requires both milling and turning operations, which they accomplish in a single setup on the LV800M. We probably do 250 of these parts per month, and I think those finished parts weigh about 75 lb [34 kg], and they’re probably double that when we start on them. Te cus- tomer actually assembles them into a check valve; we do the bodies. Tey put the flappers in and assemble them aſter they get the machined bodies from us. Check valves are used aſter an oil well is completed to extract the oil from the ground into a holding tank or a pipeline. “Te check valve bodies,” he said, “are made from 10" bar
and are generally 20' [7 m] in length. We get the steel in and we saw the bars into blanks with a couple of automatic band- saws. Tey go on the LV800, we rough-turn them, drill a 27
/8 "
[73-mm] hole with an inserted drill, and then we send them off to heat treat. Tey come back, and we put them on the LV800, and we are able to do one end finished, flip it to com- plete the second end and then do the mill work. So when it comes off, we are really doing the part in two operations—one roughing operation and one finishing operation. Total cycle time is about 45 min to do the roughing and about one hour to finish them. Tey have a variety of 63 Ra
finishes on some
of the bores, and they have a stub Acme thread in one end. We do all this on the LV800M. “On our WIA L300MS, which is a traditional horizontal turning center featuring live tooling as well as a sub-spindle,”
“We didn’t even have a forklift for the whole time I was at that location ... I believe this is called ‘roughing it’, and we definitely did that.”
time. Parts where we turn and bore come off of the Hyundai WIA turning centers with a 32 Ra
finish. We do that on a
regular basis. Normally if you need better than that, you’re probably going to need to go to grinding. “Further, Hyundai WIA has probably influenced our oper-
ating processes somewhat in the last couple of years. We work about 20 hours a day in two 10-hour shiſts, five days a week, and the Hyundais work right through both shiſts. I think we have more Hyundai WIA machines than anything else.”
58 Energy Manufacturing 2013
Kulbeth continued, “they start out with 5" [127-mm] diameter bar stock, about 1½" [38-mm] long. Tey get a close tolerance, tapered ID, and when you flip it around to do the opposite side, you have to maintain a wall thickness of 0.120", ±0.005" [3 mm, ±0.127 mm]. Tese are safety devices that go on high- pressure pumps, so that when pressure builds to a certain point the cover will blow instead of the pump. Tese parts also have a thread that we thread mill on the L300MS, which is kind of a unique thing to do on a lathe. Typically it’s more
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