Page 42 - CNC West web Feb March 2022

APM got the Toyoda horizontal to do their military and aerospace production runs that require a large amount of material removal.
settled, after wasting all that time, wasting all that money we ended up with a clean slate but only two machines, a Haas VF4 with a 4th axis and a SL20 with a C axis. We needed more machines and ended up buying a Comet, a Femco, a Takumi, and a VF6. We got everything from Expand Machinery. Harvinder went out of his way to steer us in a good direction. We told him exactly what had happened and where we felt we went wrong and where we wanted to go.” “Picking up used machines from Expand Machinery is like buying new,” continues Ed. “They are perfectly rebuilt and ready to go without the higher price point of new. The buying process was amazing. You know right away that Harvinder is in it for the long haul with you as a company. The one and done mentality you get from many machinery salespeople doesn’t exist. We are customers and friends for life, he has been that valuable in reengineering the APM program.”
Stage two for APM came about a year ago when they earned their AS9100 certification and took up Swiss turning. “One of our long-term goals from back in the day was to get AS9100 certified, and we did it finally last year,” touts Erik. “We’ve always embraced the standards as a company, but love that we now have the certifications. It is a road map; follow this guide and you will do well. We should have done it sooner.” New Aerospace customers haven’t beat down APM’s door during the pandemic, but automotive has been nonstop. That is ok by them as they continue to reinforce the AS9100 training and essentials with their team. “Not every job requires a paper trail,” explains Ed. “But we treat every job as if it does. The AS standards have improved us as a company, and we are delivering better parts because of it.”
With phase one machines paid off and APM on the rise, Ed and Erik set off in search for the next wave of machining centers that would help drive their expansion.
New clients and work orders come mostly via referrals and word of mouth so when an existing customer offered up an additional family of parts they jumped at the chance. “One of our local aerospace customers has been so impressed with how we’ve been manufacturing their large parts that they wanted to give us their smaller parts as well,” explains Ed. “Some of those parts they were actually manufacturing in house on really old screw machines. So, the POs came with three old machines. We knew we needed to call Harvinder and see what was out there to improve quality and efficiency. He took us all over the place looking at new and used machines. Ones he couldn’t even sell us, just to show us what was out there and some of the features he thought could up our manufacturing game.”
APM ended up purchasing a Ganesh Cyclone 32 NCY Swiss screw machine turn from Expand Machinery and financed it through Valley Financial. They also added a KIA turn, a Toyoda FA-450 II HMC CNC horizontal, and a dual spindle Ganesh Genturn-32CS Swiss machine, all bought with funding from Valley Financial. “The Swiss turning was something we really didn’t know a lot about and Harvinder really helped educate us on the different aspects that went along with it,” tells Erik. “We immediately saw the benefit of Swiss turning and kicked ourselves for not buying one sooner. It was a night and day difference. As soon as we got the first one, we added the dual spindle version a few months later. Our first set of parts earned us more PO’s, more parts, and larger run quantities. Once we pay off the first Gen Turn in March, we plan on adding a third Swiss machine in the summer.” “The value of buying a used machine from Harvinder, and Expand Machinery is like buying a certified preowned machine,” continued Ed. “He is the type of guy that replaces everything in it before installing it on your floor.
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