Clay Leath, President, L&R Precision Tooling, with the Okuma PALLETACE FMS.
Okuma customer L&R Precision Tooling, Inc., has invested in a PALLETACE flexible manufacturing system (FMS) integrated with three Okuma MB-4000H horizontal machining centers (HMCs). "As a busy CNC job shop serving the aerospace, medical and energy industries, the company handles a wide variety of jobs that involve complex, tight-tolerance parts cut from exotic and difficult-to-machine metals," said an Okuma spokesperson. "The integrated machining center and FMS system provide flexibility that enables the shop to be more proactive and reactive to customer needs."
"We do not think you have to grow or die, but you do have to improve or die; our PALLETACE system from Okuma allows us to do that," said Clay Leath, President, L&R Precision Tooling.
The FMS is designed to reduce set-up time and changeovers, allowing L&R to take on repeat orders while accommodating schedule and quantity changes. "This advanced CNC machining technology also enables shorter lead times, competitive pricing and lights-out manufacturing for increased productivity," said the spokesperson. "Since acquiring the PALLETACE, L&R has more than doubled its warehouse square footage in addition to increasing its workforce by 45%."
"We have implemented this FMS to better meet our customers' needs for shorter lead times and volume pricing on smaller batch sizes," said Leath. "For parts most effectively run on horizontals the system can practically eliminate set-up times by leaving the fixtures in place on the pallets for repeat orders. The Okuma Control can intuitively schedule production 24/7 while adjusting for break-in jobs as needed on the three identically configured Okuma MB 4000H HMCs. Our current system configuration is 80 feet long and has a high-speed stacker crane, two levels of pallet storage, two loading stations and the Okuma Cell Controller.
"It is expandable to four loading stations with up to 10 machines to accommodate future growth. We integrated three Okuma MB 4000H HMCs. They are identical to more easily accommodate production scheduling, and features include 15,000 RPM spindles, 400 mm tables, full fourth-axis indexing capabilities, 1,000 PSI through the spindle coolant, 22 x 22 x 24.5-inch travels and 146-capacity tool changers. Additional options to increase productivity include heat-shrink tooling with a tool presetter and onboard monitoring of tool life, tool breakage, TMac spindle load and auto-gauging Renishaw probing."
For more information contact:
Clay Leath, President
L&R Precision Tooling
3720 Cohen Place
Lynchburg, VA 24501
800-263-4445 / 434-525-4120
www.lrprecisiontooling.com
Julie Murphy, Marketing Director
Okuma America Corporation
11900 Westhall Drive
Charlotte, NC 28278
704-588-7000
www.okuma.com