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26 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST February/March 2018 love dealing with the local rep, Randy Flores from D&R Ma- chinery Sales. Even though we didn’t buy them through Randy, D&R is one of our preferred vendors. The last three new Hurco CNC machines we bought, we bought through Randy. Randy is the only sales person who can just walk right past Karen our office manager and is welcome any time. There is a personal relationship we have with him even if we are not in the mar- ket for a new machining center. He never badmouths another brand machine or another sales person. He knows when we need something we will call him.” Wire Tech has recently added two Hurco lathes and a Hurco 3 axis mill to further bolster their capabilities. “Two of our GF Machine Solutions milling centers have upgraded 42,000 RPM spindles that we use exclusively for electrode manufacturing and hard milling,” tells Eric. “We needed a machine that could be dedicated to tooling and the Hurco VMX 24 fit the bill perfectly. It’s a rigid, well-made ma- chine with a good size work envelope and a 12,000RPM spindle. With plenty of tools it gives us added flexibility if we ever want to change its role in our workflow.” The newest acquisition is a Hurco TM10i CNC turning cen- ter. It too was purchased through D&R with a specific purpose in mind. Wire Tech machines hundreds of shroud segments that are part of a turbine system. A segment is approximately a 10” ring made from Inconel or Hastelloy. They start out with 100 forgings, and each of those makes 9 to 20 parts about 1.25” thick. “We needed something with a larger turning capacity and more torque,” tells Eric. “The grooves we put in the segments require you to really get after it.” Turning on the Hurco is the first step in a multi-op process. After turning they go to the wire machine for segmenting. A final op is completed on the sinker EDMs before the part is ready to be shipped off. “The turning is the most expensive part of the program,” explains Rick. “The wire op and sinker op go off pretty quickly, but the lathe work takes the better part of a day and a half to complete.” Eric half jokingly says how they could use a few more Hurco lathes, but with a staff of only 15 they are short staffed some days as it is. “We’d be happy to give Randy more money if we could find enough good people to run more machines,” he says with a sigh. “The core group of employees we have now are great, but we need more of them. Even with all the manufac- turing in the area we struggle to find quality people to run the machines. Qualified applicants are welcome to come apply. We are interested in milling and turning people.” “Arizona is a great place to live and work,” adds Rick. “I’ve spent my life here and never tripped on sunshine.” The transition from job shop to production shop has been gradual for Wire Tech. They walk a fine line between the two some days. One problem they face is that potential custom- ers don’t know they do more than just EDM. Understandably so since their name implies wire EDM. “Our customers know the capabilities we have and the service we provide,” concludes Rick. “Spreading the word without scaring off job shop work is where it gets tricky. Current customers know how trustworthy we our and that our reputation in the industry means every- thing to us. Conveying that trust to other shops is sometimes a more difficult sell. Quality, value, and integrity are not just words on our website, but words we’ve lived by since 1983.” Flight hardware, exotic alloys and top notch quality are all in a days work at Wire Tech. They service primarily the aerospace and defense industry but also have decades of experience in tooling, injection molding and medical devices.