Perseverance and the Right Technology Prevail in the Oil Patch

David Kulbeth, President, Kalco Machine and Manufacturing Co. (KM&M), needed to grow and keep pace with energy sector demand - oil, gas and mining - in the oil patch region. He needed additional equipment to add capacity, reduce cycle times and reduce setup times. Older equipment needed to be replaced, and new machining technology was needed to acquire new work.

"In the beginning as a job shop, you try to find a machine that will do just about anything that comes your way," said Kulbeth. "However, during the last few years we have gotten jobs and then acquired machines to do those jobs. Actually, it is a pretty good position to be in, to get the job and then buy the machine to do the job rather than having the machine and trying to find work to put on it."

Kulbeth went to Korea with his supplier, Hillary Machinery (Plano, TX), to tour Hyundai WIA's machine tool production plants in Changwon, South Korea. While there he wanted to learn more about their offering of CNC vertical lathes, especially the Hyundai WIA LV800M. "We had a specific oil and gas part in mind that was quite large and required both turning and milling operations that would ideally be machined in one setup. Our visit to Korea really paid off," he said. "During our tour we were able to see the LV Series vertical turning centers being assembled in what was a very modern, clean and well organized plant. The LV800M is now installed and has met our challenge in both its capacity to machine large, heavy parts and its capability to perform both turning and milling operations in a single setup."

KM&M currently has 12 Hyundai WIA machines. The most recent acquisitions were purchased all within the last few months, and in addition to the LV800M, include the L400LMC, L250MS and SKT21LMS.

Kulbeth said that some of the parts they manufacture are 12.5" diameter, 48" long with a 6" thru hole and weigh 1,200 lbs. When finish-machined they will have cut off 600 lbs of chips. Cycle time: four hours. These 48" parts are part of a manifold system for fracking and they are run on a Hyundai WIA L400LMC.

The LV800 vertical lathes are used to machine check valve bodies, which are 10" diameter and 14" long. The part requires both milling and turning operations, which they accomplish in a single set-up on the LV800M. "We probably do 250 of these parts per month," said Kulbeth. "I think those finished parts weigh about 75 lbs, and they are probably double that when we start on them. The customer actually assembles them into a check valve; we do the bodies. They put the flappers in and assemble them after they get the machined bodies from us. Check valves are used after an oil well is completed to extract the oil from the ground into a holding tank or a pipeline."

The check valve bodies are made from 10" bar and are generally 20' in length. "We saw steel bars into blanks with a couple of automatic band saws," said Kulbeth. "They are loaded onto the LV800, we rough turn them, drill a 2-7/8 inch hole with an inserted drill and then we send them off for heat treat. We then put them on the LV800 and we are able to finish one end, flip it to complete the second end and then do the millwork. So when it comes off, we are really doing the part in two operations - one roughing operation and one finishing operation." Total cycle time is about 45 minutes to do the roughing and about one hour to finish them. They have a variety of 63 Ra finishes on some of the bores, and they have a stub Acme thread in one end. All the work is done on the Hyundai WIA LV800M vertical lathe.

"On our Hyundai WIA L300MS, which are traditional horizontal turning centers featuring live tooling as well as a sub-spindle, we start out with 5 inch diameter bar stock, about 1-1/2 inches long. They get a close tolerance, tapered ID, and when you flip it around to do the opposite side, you have to maintain a wall thickness of 0.120 inch, +/- 0.005 inch. These are safety devices that go on high-pressure pumps, so that when pressure builds to a certain point, the cover will blow instead of the pump. These parts also have a thread that we thread mill on the L300MS, which is unique to a lathe. Typically it is more common to tap on a lathe. These have a fairly tight tolerance on the pitch diameter of that thread, so we thread mill them to control that pitch diameter better."

"We have had Hyundai machines since 2007," said Kulbeth "These machines are very good at holding quality. We consistently hold +/- 0.0005 inch all the time. Parts where we turn and bore come off of the Hyundai WIA turning centers with a 32 Ra finish on a regular basis. Normally, if you need better than that, you are probably going to need to go to grinding.

"We work about 20 hours a day in two 10-hour shifts, five days a week, and the Hyundais work right through both shifts. I think we have more Hyundai WIA machines than anything else. Of our 24 CNC lathes, 12 are Hyundai WIA machines purchased through Hillary Machinery."

Kulbeth said the oil and gas business is probably 70% 4140, and some of it is heat treated up to 38 Rockwell. They outsource the heat-treating and have just begun doing some black oxide and zinc phosphate plating.

Kulbeth said they still do mandrels and packers for down hole drilling, the majority of which is done for Halliburton. However, they do a lot of work for Weatherford, and almost everything for Weatherford goes down in the hole. Kulbeth also has plans to begin working with Caterpillar in the near future. This particular division of Caterpillar builds drilling machines that are track mounted. The machines are used more for mining, which is directly related to oil and gas types of applications.

"There has been a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing, especially in the energy sector, and I take pride in being a part of it," said Kulbeth. "We are doing our best to help create jobs so we can keep manufacturing here in the U.S."

David Kulbeth began KM&M in 1998 as a one-man operation in a 2,000 sq. ft. shop with two manual lathes and a manual mill. Today KM&M has 70 employees at three locations in 51,500 sq. ft. and estimates sales of about $9.2 million this year.

For more information contact:

Kalco Machine and Manufacturing Co.

2524 Sheppard Access Road

Wichita Falls, TX 76306

940-761-1060

www.kalcomachine.com

Hyundai WIA Machine America Corp.

450 Commerce Blvd

Carlstadt, NJ 07072

201-636-5600

www.hyundai-wiamachine.com

SOUTHWEST ONLY

Troy Owens

Hillary Machinery Inc.

1825 Summit #207

Plano, TX 75074

800-683-1516

sales@hillaryinc.com

www.hillaryinc.com