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CNC WEST October/November 2017 www.CNC-West.com 33 ally know how to machine and make your tooling rather than just making offsets to fix it. Our people are the best because they do more than button push, they machine.” Grandma Vera was an early adapter to the CNC. She and her son, Ken Putman, always believed in technology and hiring the right people to understand it. Swiss Productions’ CNC ma- chine shop department is made up of all Star machines and two HAAS Chuckers with a 2.5” machining capability. In all they have 37 of them ranging in age, size and capabilities. “The Star Machines really shine for us,” details Timo. “We have a com- bination of different models ranging from RNC-16s, SNC-15 and 25’s along with our SR-32’s, SR-20’s and SR-16’s, which have back and side working milling attachments. Most of the ma- chines are set up with anywhere from 10 to 15 tools depending on the part and model of the machine.” They purchase all of their new Star machines from Jeff Nyman of Nyman Machin- ery. Swiss Productions is in the process of updating a few of the older machines, taking delivery this year of four new Star SB-20’s. The dated machines run max out at 5000-6000 RPM, but Swiss Productions slow them down to preserve the spindles and the bearings. Their new SB-20’s run at 10,000 RPM with- out breaking a sweat. “We’ve replaced six machines this year with the SB-20’s, and are looking to possibly add four more next year,” details Timo. “Production gains have been through the roof with the new Stars.” He gave an example where one part would take 30 seconds to run the first operation and then it would have to go to our secondary dept. for a counter bore and deburring. That entire process took just under 3 minutes a part, but with the new Star SB-20’s, machining it now takes 35 sec- onds to run, and it drops off COMPLETE. “We produce 300,000 pieces of that type of part every year and have done so for the past ten years. We love the reliability and the precision from the Star machines. They are not cheap, but I consider them to be a great value. We purchased the first few CNC Star machines in the early 80’s and fell in love with the machines. Today all of our CNC Screw machines have Fanuc controls because the continuity between the machines is important to us. It allows our operators to bounce from machine to machine easily, using the same controls and codes. Swiss Productions services many industries, but medical is their largest. They manufacture and assemble: syringe, valve and pump components, trach’s, ferrules, connectors, needle and tubing assemblies. They manufacture for top medical companies around the world, shipping globally to customers in Europe, Australia, North America and Singapore.