CNC West Dec jan 2019

48 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST December 2018/January 2019 H ayward, Ca. job shop IMT Precision Inc. pri- marily focuses on vacuum chambers that sup- port the semiconductor, solar and aerospace industries. The job shop mentality means they do it all; from machining and outside processing to an assembled piece delivered to the customer’s door. Clients asked for a one-stop shop and IMT listened. If you are a manufacturer in Silicon Valley, it means there is a good chance you now or at some point have done work in the semi conductor industry. IMT Preci- sion’s roots date back to 1993. Tim ILario opened the ga- rage-based company in the neighboring city of Fremont, Ca. machining semiconductor equipment for local com- panies. Through the years they outgrew building after building until 2000 when their current location became their manufacturing and corporate headquarters. “We have 50,000 sq.ft . of manufacturing in our warehouse area,” tells Zack Lemley, IMT Precision’s director of plan- ning and production. “Everything we do inside the office area is to support the people in the shop. We have 60 em- ployees right now and 20+ CNC mills and lathes.” The cornerstone of IMTPrecision’s business ismachin- ing large vacuum chambers. They have an army of bridge mills capable of hogging out vacuum chambers the size of small rooms. “Our largest mill is a Viper PRW-5340,” tells Zack. “It has 200” of X travel, 135” on Y and 42”+ on the Z. You literally could drive a car down between the walls. Six months ago we purchased a HMG PBM vertical from Selway Machine Tools. It has 100” on X, Y is 75” and Z has 60” of travel, but really it is about the W. The quill can stick out like 28” to get into tight spots, it is a pretty cool machine. Full 360-degree rotation. Super powerful and has a 3-speed transmission on it. We just got everything ironed out on it about three months ago. Now it runs like a champ. We are hogging out large steel chambers that get nickel plated on another machine then moving them over onto the new machine for finishing. We work with all type of materials for companies like Applied Materi- als and Sandia Labs. The local university sends us various parts for their linear accelerator. They are always making changes and improvements so it is rare we produce more than a single prototype.” Most jobs at IMT Precision are low volume. Most orders are for 1-3 parts, a big “produc- tion” style run is 20 pieces. Large items are checked on the shop floor with a table and CMM arm. The arm reaches 12’ and typically is used to check localized tolerances. “A standard check we might do is flatness between a certain distance,” details Zack. IMT PRECISION CMM MANAGER AND ALTERA CMM MAKING LIFE MORE PRECISE AT IMT PRECISION Zack Lemley and Pete Kunze in IMT Precision’s quality lab.