Juine •  July 2005 • Vol. XXIII No. 5 • An Arnold Publication

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Pretty, Precise, Productive
A Machining Job Shop Finds the Right Formula
for Success With Its Medical Industry Customers.
 

Story and photos by C. H. Bush, editor

A lot of job shops and contract manufacturers serving the medical industry seem to have a natural immunity against the worst swings in the economy. In fact, ask a shop specializing in producing parts and components for the medical industry how it fared during the last recession, and in response you’re liable to hear a joking, “What recession?”

So why is the medical industry apparently immune to the vicissitudes of the economic roller coaster?

“The economy doesn’t really matter in the medical industry,” says Roland Kamber, owner-president of Campbell, CA’s Precision Identity Corporation. “For two reasons. First, people don’t pay for their medical care. Insurance companies and the government pay. Second, people want to live. If they’re sick, and need healthcare, money doesn’t mean much. What they want is the best care they can get.”

Founded in the early ‘70s by Kamber’s father, Precision Identity currently occupies a 12,000 sq ft facility packed with 11 CNC screw machines, a couple of CNC lathes, several vertical mills and a variety of support equipment. The company keeps 17 people busy in one shift producing hundreds of thousands of parts annually for 15 or 20 medical industry customers.

“We’ve been very successful in the medical industry, because we found the right formula for keeping our customers happy,” Kamber says. “It’s not rocket science, but it is important. In the medical industry our customers want us to meet or exceed their specifications. They also want their parts to look good. And, of course, in order to remain competitive, we have to be constantly on the lookout for ways to cut our costs and increase productivity. So far we’ve done all those things. Whenever possible we exceed their tolerances, we always provide finishes better than they expect, and we use the best equipment we can afford to stay productive.”

The Move to Medical

How did Precision Identity become one of the “lucky” medical industry job shops?

“In 1990 I signed an agreement to purchase the company from my dad,” Kamber says, “and up until that time we had mainly done low-to-medium-volume CAM-type screw machine and other work for people like IBM and Hewlett Packard, computer parts, and semi conductor electronics, microwave, that kind of thing. But then in the early ‘90s I got a P.O. from a company called Rock Shox. It was for a hundred thousand parts that were part of mountain bike shock absorbers. When I saw it, I just stared at it, wondering, ‘Oh, my God, how am I going to do this?’ I had never seen an order for that quantity.”

Kamber took the order and over the next couple of years bought a couple of new CNC lathes and a new Star JNC 25 CNC screw machine.
“For the next five or six years Rock Shox practically owned us,” Kamber says. “And then they started complaining that my prices were too high. Finally I said, ‘You know what? It's not worth it. I can't even keep the lights on for the prices they want to pay.’ So, I didn’t even try to give them what they wanted, and they went to China.”

Kamber had seen the move to China coming, and so was prepared for it.
“I had a medical-industry customer we were doing a little work for,” he says, “and I had a really good relationship with them, and still do. So I called up the buyer and said, ‘Look, I’ve got all this equipment sitting here that could be doing your work.’ She said, ‘I had no idea. You never told me that.” I said, ‘I never told you because it was always busy, and I didn’t want to make promises I couldn’t keep.’ It was amazing. She just started giving me more work and suddenly I was in the medical industry big time.”

“From that point on we started getting screw machine work, lathe work, mill work, you name it,” he adds. “We were cutting stainless, plastic, titanium, aluminum, everything they needed. From that point on we’ve never looked back. We’re a medical industry shop, and we’re happy about it.”

From that point on Precision Identity’s involvement grew steadily until it now represents more than 99% of the company’s work. Now the company produces surgical instruments, disposable devices, things with odd names like canulas, trocars, obturators, instruments used in hip and knee replacement surgery.

“We make bone drills and panel buttons, all kinds of things,” he says. “If they need it, we make it. But the good thing is I’m not captive to any one company the way I was with Rock Shox. We’re virtually a 100% medical now, but that business is scattered over fifteen or sixteen companies. I’ve never had to go out and sell, either. All our growth has been by word of mouth. I guess when the industry learns that you know how to satisfy their requirements, they automatically come after you. It’s all about credibility.”

Industry Requirements

What makes the medical industry different from others, and why can’t just anybody walk in and get the business?

Kamber: “The medical industry is interested not just in having a good product, machined to specification, but they want it to look really good, too. We know that if our parts don’t look great, not to send them out. We won’t even ship them. The way we do that is to consistently give them back better than they specify. For instance, if they request a thirty-two finish, we give them a sixteen or an eight. We do that, because with the equipment we have, it doesn’t really take that much longer, and it keeps our customers happy.”

According to Kamber, many of their products are used by surgeons and eventually get thrown away.

“But that doesn’t matter,” he says. “The tools have to work, have to function the way they’re supposed to, but the doctors also want them to look good and feel good to the touch. If the tools work and look good, they’ll keep buying them. If not, they won’t.”

Looks are important enough that Kamber makes a lot of extra effort to be sure his parts look great.

“We don’t do any brazing, because brazing looks horrible,” he says. “We laser weld and laser engrave everything. All our parts have to be right and look right.”

Productivity and Flexibility

When he first bought Precision Identity from his father, Kamber wasn’t quite sure which way he wanted to go with equipment.

“We got the big Rock Shox order,” he says, “and I went out and bought a CNC lathe, which was fast. Later on, however, I realized that in the long run I would be better off sticking with CNC screw machines. Actually I bought two CNC lathes, Nakamuras, and they’re really great, but when you're used to screw machines, and you’re saying, ‘Oh, I can put this part on that machine, and I can put this one over there,’ and then you get to the lathe and realize you can’t put the part on it, because it's got to go on a screw machine. The thing is that on a screw machine the tools are set next to the guide bushing, so you can turn a part 12" long, a 100,000th diameter, and you don’t have to worry about deflecting the part. The lathes may be faster, but the screw machines are more versatile, and nowadays they’re very fast, too. I opted for versatility.”

A Star Shop

Over the years Kamber accumulated a shop full of Star screw machines, becoming what he calls a “Star shop.”

“Actually, I have six different models of Stars on the floor,” he says. “I did that in order to have a variety of capacities. I have one that goes up to five-eights diameter, twelve inches long. I have other machines that go up to an inch and a quarter and ten inches turning length. I have a lot of machines with live tools, and most of my machines have bar feeders.”

Star ECAS 20

The current star of Kamber’s equipment lineup is a Star ECAS 20 CNC screw machine, delivered in February of this year.

“I could have purchased something less expensive,” he says, “but this machine has tremendous capability. It has 9 live tools and with this model Star changed over to a Siemens controller with 3-channel operation, which means the different operations don’t have to wait in line to get their commands. On this machine they’ve solved the chip build up problem by having two turning tools, one roughing and one coming right behind to do the finishing work. That way the chips are smaller and lighter, and they fall out of the way a lot easier.”

Another feature on the ECAS 20 that helps solve the typical screw machine chip problem is a beefed-up coolant system.

“This new machine has a high-pressure coolant pump that I think goes to 600 psi,” Kamber says. “The coolant pressure is so strong it actually blows the chip out of the way now. That didn’t happen on older machines.”

The new Siemens controller has taken a bit of learning for Kamber and his other programmers to get used to, he reports, but it hasn’t been difficult.

“Programming on this one is differ

nt, but it’s not hard,” he says. “We were used to the older Fanuc controllers, so you have to expect some learning curve. On this machine, you don’t have to use ‘wait’ codes. The main thing is the ECAS 20 is really easy to set up, and it produces parts faster than anything else in the shop. What I love most is that I can run it 24/7 lights out, and it is very reliable. This machine is the first step toward achieving my ultimate goal of full automation and it will pay for itself in months, not years. I have no regrets about paying a little more for it.”

Automation Goal

Kamber says his long-term business goal is to have a fully automated screw-machine shop.

“The truth is that by the very nature of the screw machine, it’s already fairly well automated, especially when you have an automatic bar loader,” he says. “But with the live tools and a bar loader, you can run all night, and reduce secondary ops. Eventually I plan to double and triple production without adding additional people. I love screw machine work, so I don’t see that I will ever change to anything else. I just want to make my shop faster, more efficient, better quality and more competitive. That means as much automation as possible.”

And will he remain a “Star shop?”

“Until something better comes along,” he says, “but so far that hasn’t happened.”

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