technology in action
In one instance, the shop made a slight programming change and was able to run a cutting tool 70 ipm (1780 mm/ min) faster and take a 0.010" (0.254-mm) heavier chip load. Doing so slashed a whole minute off of part processing time for an annual cost saving of almost $70,000. For another job, Vickers simply went from using coolant with a particular inserted cutter to running it dry. Once it did, the tool fed faster and harder—by about 350 sfm (107 m/min) over previous parameters—to shave 40 seconds from the overall cycle time. And tool life skyrocketed from 150 to 450 parts per insert index. Other victories through tooling involved a switch in insert grades that not only lopped 45 seconds off of part cycle time for one job, it boosted tool life by a factor of 2.5 times. In another, the shop implemented a multifunction tool that did the work of two individual tools to reduce tool changes, shorten cycle times and lower tool costs. And yet another victory involved incorporating a larger size cutter/inserts that increased feed rate as well as machining speed to the point where the shop was able to avoid installing a planned, costly second machining cell for that particular job.
Advanced Technology and Advice Matt Tyler, president and CEO at Vickers Engineering, along with all those on his manufacturing team, agree the shop has and continues to achieve amazing reductions in cycle times and increases in tool life. They also all agree that many of those improvements would have proved impossible without the advanced tooling technology and expert applica- tion support from Seco Tools LLC (Troy, MI). At Vickers, carbide inserts, cutter bodies, drills and tool-
holders from Seco make up about 60% of the shop’s tooling. But that wasn’t always the case. In the past, Seco was one of three carbide suppliers. Then the shop consulted with Darrell Harris, technical specialist at Seco, about a more strategic plan/partnership to benefit both parties. The partnership would help grow Seco, and in return, the tooling company would provide Vickers with competitive pricing and complete engineering application support. “From minute one, it was a success with Seco,” said Jeff Vickers, Vickers’ vice president of engineering and sales and whose father James Vickers founded the company. “We hit our goals year after year, and as a result, our tooling spend with Seco quickly surged within only four years. Our opera-
tions are much more efficient than they were even five years ago, and we expect they’ll be even more so five years from now.” He added that a big part of that efficiency involves constantly working with Seco to analyze grades, types of cut- ters and geometries for achieving the lowest cost per part.
No Support? No Deal! “Basically, price per insert or tool is irrelevant when our cost per part drops significantly as a result,” explained Vickers. “Seco is our tooling partner, and we are completely done with those suppliers that simply sell us a tool without any support or value added. As a matter of fact, we recently presented to Honda and used tooling data and information supplied by Seco to help us win the job.” In addition to advanced tooling technology, Vickers fully embraces automation. Over the years this has made and continues to keep the shop globally competitive, said Tyler. “We are now in markets that quite frankly we had no busi- ness competing in over the past few years, and automation, along with a strong supply chain, has been our key to enter- ing those new markets,” he added. To date, fully automated cells dominate Vickers’ manu- facturing floor real estate. And during actual machining operations, the shop pushes each of those cells as hard and as fast as possible. They group the machines in their cells according to parts, and automation/robots typically do all the part handling.
Meeting the Biggest Challenge In extremely high-production cell-manufacturing environ- ments, consistency is the biggest challenge. To achieve it, Vickers standardizes wherever possible, establishes process procedures and sticks to them. Most parts are cast iron, with some aluminum. Sizes can range from 3 × 3" (76 × 76 mm) up to 10 × 10" (254 × 254 mm) with tolerances spanning from ±0.010" (0.254 mm) to as tight as ±0.0008" (0.020 mm). Part surface finishes are critical and must be consistent, while also visually appealing—they have to look good. Switching from solid carbide end mills to Seco inserted cutters and drills was a major milestone for Vickers and key to holding tolerance and surface finish requirements. The shop uses cutters from Seco’s Square 6 and Square T4-08 families of inserted square shoulder milling cutters along with Seco Feedmax high-performance drills.
78 — Motorized Vehicle Manufacturing 2015
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