FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARLINGTON, Vt. (Feb 8, 2011) – Mack Molding has extended its vertical integration of services, investing $1 million in the development of a full-service Machining Center at its headquarters plant. “The growing demand for milling and turning work, combined with our drive to further compress lead times for our customers, made this a very easy decision,” says Jeff Somple, president of Mack’s Northern Operations. “As a growing supplier to the medical device and orthopedic markets, we see a lot of opportunity for this service.”
The primary equipment purchases include a Mazak Integrex Mark IV turning and machining center, and two Citizen A20VII lathes. “The Integrex is the workhorse,” says David Hoffman, CNC supervisor. “With its advanced multi-tasking technology, it can perform high-powered turning and full-function machining in a single setup. This reduces lead time for our customers and allows us to produce small lot sizes in a cost-efficient manner.” Part accuracy is also improved by eliminating multiple setups. The Integrex is equipped with 40-tool capacity, a touch probe tool setter, KM63 dual contact tool connection, two-inch thru-capacity, and an LNS Servo 65 bar feeder.
The Citizen Swiss lathes are 7-axes, 20mm machines with 21 tools each. Equipped with an additional axis on the subspindle, they can machine on both the front- and back-ends simultaneously. “This feature, along with 32m/min rapid feed rates, significantly reduces cycle times,” adds Hoffman. The lathes are coupled with C-320 barfeeders with 3-20mm barstock capacity using +0.0000″/-0.0005″ precision ground stock.
Both the Integrex and Citizen lathes have fully integrated CAD/CAM systems that allow the customer to see the actual process before the first piece of metal is cut. “PartMaker allows us to take the part from a solid model to a complete 3D simulation, and then to the machine G code,” says Hoffman. MatrixCam provides offline conversational programming on the Integrex. Other auxiliary equipment includes ultrasonic parts washing, vibratory tumble deburring, a 14-inch optical comparator, and a surface finish analyzer.
Now fully operational, the Machining Center produced first parts in late fall 2010. Management staff is in place, with 10-15 additional employees planned as the service grows to a two-shift operation.
More on David Hoffman
Heading up Mack’s new Machining Center is David Hoffman, a native of Arlington, Vt., who has returned ‘home’ after working for 13 years for Kingsbury Corporation (Keene, N.H.). Kingsbury designs and manufactures metal cutting, assembly, turning and machining equipment in a 300,000 sq ft facility. During his tenure, Hoffman steadily climbed the engineering career ladder, gaining a breadth of expertise that spans from project and applications engineering to reliability & maintainability, machine technology, and controls engineering. A graduate of Vermont Technical College (Randolph, Vt.), he earned a bachelor’s in electromechanical engineering technology (EMT), as well as the Excellence in Electromechanical Engineering Award. An active alum, he still participates as a member of the Advisory Committee for the BSEMT program.
About Mack Molding
Mack Molding is a leading custom plastics molder and contract manufacturer specializing in plastics design, prototyping, molding, sheet metal fabrication, and medical device manufacturing. Founded in 1920, Mack is a privately owned business that operates 10 facilities throughout the world. Don Kendall is president and CEO.
For more news and information about the applications and services of Mack Molding Co., go to www.mack.com.
