With forty years under their belt, 120 employees, multiple customers with different machining and material demands, and a successful business, the shop turned to Jergens in 2015 to explore options for a better way. A better way to hold the large variety of components that the shop had grown to manufacture for its customers in the mold and die industry. They did, and they did it so well it earned them a reputation in the industry as ‘the aluminum experts’.

The shop had to build and maintain over 150 different custom fixtures of widely varying configurations. Furthermore, products produced spanned eight different categories, required expertise in CAD, engineering, prototype parts, machining operations including five axis, tooling and the list goes on.

In addition to ordering a range of steel sub plates, fixture plates and numerous clamping components to make the fixtures, the shop also had to machine and assemble them. So, before a single chip hit the floor from a customer part, they had to make their own set ups. They did well, obviously they are a skilled shop, but realized that a better solution had to exist.

For the shop, the biggest realization (economic impact) came from the analysis of the true cost to manufacture and assemble the fixtures, and the incredible reigning-in of set up time – 90% reduction.

Prior to the Jergens ZPS solution, the time it took for each set up was ten minutes, and there was an average of thirty setups – that’s five hours per day spent just in setup time. That average time with the change to ZPS went to just one minute, or one-half hour total per day.

At a rate of $100 per hour, that’s $450 per day in savings, or $112,500 annually!

Tom Reid, Canadian Sales manager for Jergens, who works very closely with the shop, reported, “I’ve seen a lot of positive results, particularly with Drop and Lock (another popular quick-change pallet option) and ZPS, but don’t recall one as dramatic as this in recent years”. Tom continued, “We work closely with the customer to engineer and provide these solutions, and also measure important calculations such as ROI, which in this case was about five weeks”.

The end result for part production was significant and predictable - error reduction, reduced scrap, easy part orientation, and better / more consistent output from the manufacturing floor.

Watch this video and learn how to check runout (total indicator runout or T.I.R.) to check your CNC machine tool holders performance. 

Good T.I.R. (less than .0002") keeps cutting tools cutting smoothly and prevents cutting tools from wearing out prematurely.

Tool holders do wear out over time and if good T.I.R. cannot be achieved either the collet, nut, or holder may need replaced

IMTSTV visits Masa Tool in the West hall of IMTS 2016. Masa Tool specializes in micro precision workholding. Chip Prescott and Matt Saccomonno, lead technicians at Masa Tool, show us some of the new products they're showcasing at IMTS 2016

Mark Hurst started his first job at a machine shop after graduating from Cedar Falls (Iowa) High School. Even though he was originally hired as the shop janitor, it didn’t take long for the machine shop owner to recognize Mark’s quick learning curve and his desire to create something from nothing.

About one year after his hire date, Mark was sent by the company to Mazak programming training in Schaumburg, Illinois to learn how to program the company’s newest vertical milling machines. In fact, some of Mark’s machine work has made it to the racetrack. These parts were used in top competing teams of the NHRA, NASCAR, and other regional drag racing series.

As Mark worked his way up the ranks in the machine shop, he often found himself advising and working with many of the seasoned veteran machinists. This was in order to complete machining operations in an accurate, timely manner. As time went on, and new owners purchased the machine shop, they couldn’t help but notice Mark’s natural ability for machining and leadership. He was promoted to shop supervisor and was in charge of overseeing two shifts and 22 machinists, fabricators, and welders.

Eventually, Mark moved on to work for a construction and forestry accessory manufacturer, which specialized in building stationary-to-rotary motion devices, which transferred electrical power, pneumatic power, or hydraulic power via precisely engineered and assembled components.  Mark started at the bottom of the totem pole at his new employer, but within 18 months, his skills and mindset stood out among the 120+ other employees. He was hand-picked by the management to oversee the assembly and testing of products in the hydraulics department. 

Mark’s one true hobby is motorsports! He formally raced jet skis at the local level in northeast Iowa for four years. He is a former nostalgia top fuel dragster driver, and has exceeded 200 mph several times with a top speed of 217 mph! Mark is also a former go kart racer that has raced at 33 tracks in nine states, and has won two regional championships (2007,2008), and one national championship (2007).

Mark has been married to Teresa since February of 2007. They now spend most of their summer weekends at the local dirt track, as a pit crew and spectators. For downtime, they enjoy roadtrips on their Victory motorcycle baggers and look forward to trips around the country.

Todd Pakiz has joined High Tech Industrial Representation to increase and support the sales and marketing activities of the manufacturers that they work with.

Previous to joining High Tech, Todd was recruited by Abrasive Specialists, Inc. starting in May of 2009. While at ASI, Todd served in an Applications/Sales role, and worked with customers of all sizes. In that position he was responsible for developing and documenting cost savings and process improvements as well as meeting contract requirements at specific customers.

Before working for ASI, Todd worked at Productivity Inc., another industrial distribution supplier, as their Advanced Supply Director. His duties were promoting the use of industrial vending and inventory management solutions to improve inventory accuracy and help the end-user evaluate the usage of cutting tools consumed on the shop floor. He also worked on new customer development, and increasing sales at existing customers through better purchasing solutions.

In 2004, Todd went to work for Ingersoll Cutting Tools. Initially he was hired on as a technical support specialist working on in-depth testing and evaluation of cutting tools. He was then offered the opportunity to manage a sales territory, and worked in northern Iowa and Minneapolis, MN.

Prior to getting into the outside sales and applications world, Todd worked as a machinist in Winona, MN. The parts machined were primarily specialty threaded fasteners made out of stainless steel, titanium, and high-temp alloys. He wrote and edited programs with MasterCam, or by hand with G&M codes, macros and sub-programs.

While growing up in central Wisconsin, Todd was introduced to machining by his father. He still has memories of standing on an upside down wire basket or 5 gallon pail to see what he was doing on a manual lathe. He also worked for a relative who owned/operated a race engine shop. That led him to get a degree in Machine Tool Technology from Chippewa Valley Technical College in March of 2000.

Todd lives south of Minneapolis with his wife, Kaysie, and their children, Brayden, and Addison.

He enjoys his family, golfing, fishing, snowmobiling, and watching local circle track racing.