Increasing workloads demanded new solutions for Carolina Precision Components of Valdese, NC, a manufacturer of valves and various flow control mechanisms.
“We wanted to find a way to increase our capacity without buying another machining center,” says president Randy Walker. “We had seen the folks from Advanced Machine & Engineering (Rockford, IL) at an IMTS recently and discussed our application with Alvin Goellner, one of their applications engineers. His knowledge and quick grasp of our problem were clear to us, from the outset.”
The shop had been using standard vises to hold their workpieces, including various iron castings and Dura-Bar continuous cast iron stock, steel forgings, and aluminum billets. At that time, each workpiece was positioned in a vise, machined, repositioned, checked, and machined again. Goellner and his team from Advanced suggested their Triag compact clamping system with an integrated trunnion, which would allow continuous three-sided machining and eliminate substantial handling and machine downtime. Since the Triag system could be run with any standard rotary indexer, Walker and his team were immediately interested in implementing this solution.
“We saw the advantages of this system, compared to the others we were considering and certainly compared to how we were doing things at that time. The decision was pretty easy, at that point.”
Each workpiece can be machined on three sides with no stoppages, according to Carolina’s vice president/general manager, Mike Smith.
“On any square block, even large asymmetrical iron castings, we can set up the workpieces and cut in two ops what once took six. Just the time saved in handling is substantial,” Smith says. He also noted that the range of part sizes run at Carolina extends from 3/4 x 1 in. square blocks up to 3 x 4 x 8 in. pieces, and the Triag system has been able to accommodate all. Carolina has found the gripper holes designed into the tapped jaw face and the 4-point carbide grippers to be highly reliable in positioning even the heaviest workpieces.
“We worked very closely with Alvin Goellner and the folks at Advanced on developing these grippers,” says Smith. “They really do the job for us.”
Following installation of the seven Triag systems on the Fadal VMCs at Carolina, Randy Walker says the company is planning to install the same systems on two new Haas VMCs being purchased. After-sale follow-up from Goellner and his team at Advanced made an impression on Walker: “They took interest in our business and really wanted to make a difference in how we got things done here. The results have been outstanding.”
As far as productivity goes, Walker indicated that it has risen from 500 to 1,500-2,000 pieces per month, on average, through use of the Triag clamping and integral trunnion systems.
