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technology in action The right tooling plays a big role in meeting customers’ needs


Switching from solid carbide endmills to inserted milling cutters was a major milestone for Vickers and key to holding tolerance and surface fi nish requirements, while ramping up automated cell output.


Casting Call for Short Cycle Times and Long Tool Life


V


ickers Engineering (New Troy, MI) is defi nitely a high-volume manufacturer, producing roughly fi ve million parts per year, so for the shop any reduc- tion in machining cycle times or increase in tool life—no matter how miniscule—translates into huge savings. Shorter cycle times mean jobs get done faster with less


overtime required, which in turn boosts output capacity while also lowering cost per part. Vickers then passes these savings on to its customers in the form of competitive job pricing. Longer tool life equates to fewer tool changes, and thus even shorter cycle times. Plus, any potential errors associated with tool changes, such as incorrectly entered


offsets, are greatly reduced for a large rise in overall pro- cess stability.


Vickers is a Tier One machined-castings supplier mainly to big automotive OEMs such as Toyota and Honda, as well as to companies in the oil and gas and other industries. As such, Vickers must continuously strive to improve cycle times and tool life, whether to win a new job or to improve upon one that’s been recurring for years. And everyone involved with the shop’s manufacturing operations agrees that any victories in cycle time and tool life are even sweeter when accom- plished through either a simple tooling switch or altering how an existing tool is used to optimize its performance.


77 — Motorized Vehicle Manufacturing 2015


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