Trillium, Inc

Trillium was presented with a significant opportunity to produce custom weapons components. The parts required complex machining with close tolerances, and were needed in high volumes on a flexible delivery schedule. Current manufacturing methods required multiple setups and part touches, and would not support profitable manufacture of the parts. Management needed to improve process quality and competitiveness by minimizing setup requirements, part touches, and lead times.

Assessment
Processing of the part with current capacity would require their routing across numerous workstations. Multiple setups with intricate tolerances created unacceptable risk for quality escapes and high costs of scrap and rework. Projected labor costs per part were prohibitive due to setup requirements and dedicated operators at each of the machine. Total estimated costs on the job did not allow Trillium to quote the job at a price to ensure profitability.

Solution
Ellison Technologies engineers reviewed the part process, recommending a Mori Seiki NL200SY with SMW magazine load barfeed. The solution provided Continuous machining, and dual-processing capability with Y-axis control. It consolidated multiple machining processes, minimizing setup and operator requirements. The barfeed allowed for unattended machining with complete lights out processing during the swing shift.

End Result
Integrating the Mori Seiki NH200SY not only allowed Trillium to win the contract for the weapons component, it provided them with expanded capabilities with which to grow their customer base. The machine’s features allowed Trillium to exceed expectations for cycle times, part finish, and machining of tight tolerances. Unattended operations minimized labor costs and increased part margins above original estimates.