Page 28 - CNC West Web August - September

Above - Coronado now works in cells. They discovered that a large portion of their parts required 3 lathe ops and one milling op. So now most cells are 3 plus 1.
Right - The majority of Haas milling centers are being retrofit with 4th axis capabilities. 2021’s main goal is to reduce setups by one on the top 100 jobs.
aerospace item that needs to be replaced after a certain level of usage. With no one really flying the last year they did put a different part on the S33 for a little while, but as the manufacturers ramp back up production, all the machine’s time is back spent on this single part again. “We get a slug and remove a lot of metal on it before it even goes to the Studer,” explains Dale. “The S33 then adds grooves and grinds the OD in a few places. All in a single setup. Tolerances on the part are tight, within tenths. A lot of what we do is tight, way tight. Long parts with grooves and high surface finishes. To the untrained eye the parts don’t always look impressive, but we have craftsman who make it look easy.” Coronado’s operators have gone through instructional training, and process training, to make it a repeatable process no matter which employee is running the machine. “Running the Studer isn’t as simple as anyone can do it, but we are making it so once you are trained the processes are repeatable,” clarifies Dale. “This week we have second shift people getting trained to run the Studer while they are also running the lathes.”
Coronado runs thousands of this part a year, and like everyone else, chase improvements measured in seconds. The production gains running the S33 have been huge. Dale quantifies the gains two ways, time and accuracy. “We are making better parts faster,” explains Dale. “It comes down to time and accuracy. Time X3 and accuracy X2. We’ve reduced a seven-setup job down to a single setup saving time. It also reduces the probability of human error, thus also increasing accuracy. The S33 is dramatically faster
and can hold tighter tolerances compared to the machines it was running on before. Our grinding time dropped by over 50%, and we are producing a better part at those speeds. Time again comes from our operator now being able to load the part and then work on something else for the 15-minute cycle time. We work in cells typically and the grinding department is no different. We are getting much better production from our operators being able to multitask, reallocate their time, and ultimately have better throughput and productivity at the end of the day. We verify all this with our shop wide Factory Wiz and Pro Shop software.
Dale has a philosophy; working with the customer doesn’t have to be hard. Good parts, on time, at a reasonable price. If you aren’t working on one of those things, then what are you doing? He also has what can only be described as a reverence. When someone needs help, help them. “When the customer needs help, listen to them, help them,” concludes Dale. “Look back on the day and challenge yourself and make it a better place. There is a lot that goes into that. It is Sue in purchasing who stayed late to finish a project, it’s Gary out in the shop that is having a bad day, it’s a customer needing a part tomorrow. It’s how can we help make this a better place every day.” From the top down, Coronado Manufacturing, making this a better place every day.
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CNC WEST August/September 2021