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Whitney 3700 ATC Expands Fabricator's Market
"Over the years we've increased our customer base and developed more capabilities," said Tom Neppl, owner of the company. "We now do machining, fabrication of plate, structural-type metal tubing and sheet metal business." In 1991, a major customer of Springs Fabrication landed a job to build dynamometers for automobile emission testing for use in Mexico City. They were selected as vender to build the frame work and rolls for the dynamometers. At that time the frames were made from structural steel. Then the EPA mandated new emission standards that required that automobiles be tested on dynamometers, which opened the U.S. market. "The customer then came to us to discuss fabricating a frame for their new dynamometers," said Neppl. "I had learned of the capabilities of Whitney while visiting the FABTECH Show in 1993, where I saw a 3500 ATC. At the time I hadn't even thought of the possibility of buying one of these, but it stuck in my mind that it was quite an impressive piece of equipment. When we started talking about the new design of the frame, I suggested that we might incorporate the capabilities of a machine like that. We could go to punched and formed plate instead of structural steel. With the amount of production we were talking about it would save a tremendous amount of time." After looking at the capabilities of Whitney's 3700 ATC, the new dynamometer was basically designed around what that machine could do. Springs Fabrication wanted to reduce the amount of labor that would be required in working with this type of job. There were a number parts for each product, which required a lot of plate. "I think the order that we ran last fall was about a half-million pounds of plate in about 12 weeks," said Neppl. Why did Springs Fabrication choose the Whitney 3700 ATC? "I didn't even consider anything other than a Whitney when I knew that we were going to get into the plate business," said Neppl. "I wanted a machine that not only would run the 1/4-inch plate for this big production order, but one that could also go back and improve the parts that we make out of 3/8-, 1/2- and 5/8-inch plate. So it was really the only machine that I considered." About 30 percent of the work the company did would improve production efficiency by running work through the 3700 ATC. This machine has an automatic tool changer with 42 stations, a rotary ram and TRUECut? capabilities. It can cut up to 3/4-inch thick steel plate. According to Neppl, "The 3700 has also allowed us to go into a higher production mode because of the number of parts we can run through the machine in one operation and produce them all at the same time. It's a lot more desirable to have a machine do the work and have our people do the thinking and running the equipment. I think our productivity has increased up to 75 percent on about 30 percent of the work that we have. Springs Fabrication was impressed with the increased speed in which jobs were completed with the 3700 ATC. As a job shop it typically has short turn-around on its jobs. The 3700 ATC enables them to program a part, punch it, form it, and by reducing the amount of labor hours that go into it, obviously reduce the turn-around time. "Short turn-around is very important in this business," says Neppl. "The 3700 ATC takes jobs that used to take six hours and produces them in less than a half hour. Because of the accuracy and the speed at which you can produce a complex part, we use it quite extensively for prototypes. We use it to make layout templates and drill jigs, and we nest parts from as many as five different customers on the same sheet." Another advantage for the company is the 3700's power. "It does a fantastic job on countersinking on 3/8-inch material," said Neppl. "That's moving a lot of material." Also, the company's increase in production can be partially credited to the machine's TRUECut? capabilities. Cut parts are able to be taken directly to welding without secondary operations. Initially most of the work done on the 3700 ATC was new production-parts that weren't currently running in the shop before acquiring the machine. By redesigning the existing products to fit the 3700 ATC, the company is able to stay very competitive. The company's customers are able to compete in the national market-possibly the global market-because Springs Fabrication can produce low cost, quality parts for them. Plate Sizes The company uses plate sizes from 16 gauge sheet up to 3/4-inch plate. They basically just burn some shapes out of the 3/4-inch plate. "We haven't run very much 5/8-inch; our range of use probably is from 1/4- to 1/2-inch 90 percent of the time," he says. Standard sheet sizes of 5 by 10, 5 by 12 and 4 by 10 are preferred. In some cases, however, when they have a big production job, they have been able to get custom size sheets to minimize waste. "I believe we probably experience less than 15 percent waste on a sheet," said Neppl. "Many times we'll take the drops, if there is any size to them, and run them through our burn table for small parts and small jobs. We have quite a few customers that buy small production runs and parts from us. So it's nice to have the ability to utilize an entire piece of plate when we can." Nesting of Parts The ability to nest parts is a real pay-off for Springs Fabrication, according to Neppl. In most cases this capability sets them apart from conventional methods of making parts. Even if they are very basic parts, the ability to nest them reduces scrap. The company found that through good nesting fits, they are able to get very good turn-around and efficiency on meeting start and due dates on the product since part of the nesting capability is driven by the date requirement. It's all tied in with the company's MRP system. The 3700 ATC can handle nests that are constantly changing. Every morning nests are programmed based on the requirements and needs of the machine tool for that day. Nests are never made for more than 24 hours. As new requirements come up in the day through MRP, Inventory Monitoring and changes in the production schedule, the nest is corrected to match the new requirements. "So we could have a part that is scheduled for today and later in the day find that another part is more important. The next morning the other part is shoved ahead of the order we were working on-we can constantly change it. If needed we can go in and change that requirement at any point during the day," said Neppl. "I can restructure anything that is scheduled. I can request any amount of nests: work to last for 4 hours; enough nest for 8 hours; or 24 hours. We can program into the system how far to go and it will stop once it reaches that much work. We can keep this really dynamic nest morning and afternoon if we wanted." The optimation nesting package is looking at a host of factors when it creates a nest. When using the nesting, there is less time for tool changing, as the system is constantly looking at which tool is in the carousel. It optimizes tool changing since it tells the operator which tools he has to change and which ones he does not. Automatic Tool Changing All of the machining/punching equipment at Springs Fabrication have tool changers. So the 3700 ATC is the fifth machine with this type of technology in their shop. The preparation of the tool changing is done at a work area adjacent to the machine. At the end of each sheet, the operator knows via the nesting whether he has to put any other tools in or take any out. He rarely has to change more than two or three tools from sheet to sheet. The system is set up to make sure that the operator never has to change a tool during a run. The nesting feature knows there are only 42 tools and knows it will not allow a nest to be generated that takes more than 42 tools. Once it recognizes all the tools are in the carousel, it will complete the sheet. "I think we currently use about 50 different tools," says Neppl. "We utilize punch marking, countersinking, and we use the tapping head quite extensively on the frames." 3700 Provides Competitive Advantage Since its founding, Springs Fabrication's focus has certainly changed. Today, its market niche is moving toward fabricated plate products such as the pressure vessels they build. "We try to incorporate the Whitney 3700 ATC as much as we can in our marketing and promote its capability," says Neppl. "We have a unique advantage being a small job shop and having a machine with so many capabilities. We can compete with anybody our size and nine times out of 10 we will get the job. "For example, a prospective customer was inquiring as to what type of equipment we had and what we could do. As soon as our sales manager told him we had a Whitney 3700 ATC he said, 'I've heard enough. You guys are qualified.' So certainly, just by having a piece of equipment with such capabilities, anybody who understands metalworking knows that we are for real-that we can be competitive and produce quality parts." (Used with permission from Metal Fabricating News, Apr - Jun, 1995)
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