plus or minus a half thousandth of an inch, but when you re- ceive 4000 parts are you really going to get that?” The other reason Hinderer produces everything in-house is because it affords him the freedom to design his own parts rather than being boxed in by equipment limitations of contract manu- facturers. Further, a nice byproduct of having the option to do everything in-house is being able to generate a prototype in days rather than weeks.
Another is being able to dive in to critical areas of the part
and refine its dimensions to improve knife performance. He cited the pocketknife’s locking mechanism as an example. If it is off even a little bit, the knife lock can fail. Hinderer has developed several mechanism designs that incorporate small pockets in the blade to improve locking performance. Of course, these add more machining time to the process, but cycle times aren’t Hinderer’s highest concern. He is most focused on creating high-quality knives. “We are constantly optimizing the programs. We will never sacrifice quality for cycle time. We have certain parameters that we stay within for surface finish and, if we need to slow the machine down, that’s what we will do,” said Hinderer. Modifying the existing program to improve quality can be done quickly and easily in Mastercam because it merely involves finding the critical operations on the part in each toolpath and adjusting them as necessary. Hinderer Knives has grown from a one-man operation in a chicken coop to a 14,000 ft2
(1300 m2 ) shop with 15
employees. “The popularity of one of our products, the XM18 folding knife, has brought us here. We have added five new machining centers to the production line and we marvel that we are still making the same knife,” Hinderer said. Now with 10 CNC machines, Hinderer wants others in the shop to become proficient Mastercam programmers. With this in mind, his Mastercam Reseller, FASTech Inc. (Findlay, OH) has become an important resource. A number of operators and machinists in the shop have attended Mastercam training classes at FASTech and the Reseller is available by phone and the Internet to provide advice and programming assistance to everyone on an as-need basis. Hinderer has been pleased with the result so far. “They are getting up to speed with it really well. They have only worked with Mastercam, but knowing what my own learning curve was, they would probably be lost in other software programs.” FASTech will also play a part in helping the company integrate Mastercam with the Citizen Swiss and the OMAX waterjet machines in his shop.
Mastercam plays a significant role in Hinderer Knife’s ongo- ing success. The company’s basic XM18 folding knife, made from titanium and stainless steel, currently sells for $425. Ten years ago it sold for $390. “By investing in Mastercam, we were able to raise our profit on the back end rather than rais- ing prices much. You don’t need to grow your profit by raising the price,” he said. From within a single programming environ- ment Hinderer has been able to indulge his creative side, program his equipment, and grow his customer base. For more information from Mastercam/CNC Software Inc., go to
www.mastercam.com or phone 860-875-5006.
Continued from P45
Medical Device Shop Thrives with Multitasking C
onstant innovation is the life force behind business suc- cess at Conmed Orthopedics in Largo, FL. The company specializes in medical devices for orthopedic, arthroscopic, and laparoscopic surgery. Conmed Largo currently manufac- tures about 4300 different part catalog numbers and intro- duces many innovative new products each and every year. Competition is tough, and Conmed must continuously boost efficiency and shorten product development lead times to get its innovations to market as quickly as possible. Conmed produces both disposable and reusable surgical instruments. Many are medical hand tools, but the company also produces pneumatic and battery-operated power hand tools, as well as the implants that are put into the body us- ing those hand tools and other instruments. The company develops products for many areas of minimally invasive surgery from gynecology and general surgery to products for shoulder, knee, and hip.
Aluminum makes up about 40% of the parts the shop machines, stainless steel another 40% and brass and titani- um the remaining parts. Conmed makes implantable anchors from materials that include a poly lactate acid material the body absorbs after a certain amount of time, PEEK plastic, and special grades of titanium. All products are manufac- tured utilizing LeanSigma methodologies, and Conmed precision machining typically holds machined part tolerances of ±0.0005" (0.013 mm).
In the past, the company organized its shop floor into dedicated production departments based on single machin- ing operations, e.g. milling, turning, grinding etc. But such
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