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44 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST August/September 2018 B ranick Industries, located in Fargo, North Dakota, has been a leader in the tire and automotive equip- ment industry since 1917. Since then, the company has been issued over 100 patents for products such as jacks, tire changers, inflation cages, and other specialty tools. Today the company is known as a pioneer in areas such as tire service and repair equipment, tire inflation equipment, and nitrogen systems. DEMAND DRIVES INNOVATION Branick has over 750,000 customers worldwide, mainly tire shops, fleet maintenance operations and dealerships. Because of the demand for its products, their machining center runs day and night – all week and into the weekend. To handle the volume, the company is constantly looking for ways to cut pro- cessing time and increase productivity. One example is the production of the Branick 7600 strut compressor. Made of 1212 Carbon Steel, this patented device is designed to remove the strut from the middle of a spring. Known as “the standard in the industry,” the 7600 handles the heaviest coil-over-shocks on light trucks and SUV’s without needing additional adapters. The multi-position upper spring hooks can be arranged for ultimate flexibility to fit factory coil spring configurations. The 7600 has three hooks on the top and three on the bot- tom which slide in and out of a slot on the unit. Originally, pro- duction of the hook component was outsourced, but Branick brought it in-house to have better control of quality and pro- ductivity. At first, the machinist would bore a hole with a ½” carbide drill and then make three sweeps with a 10mm end mill to create a finished slot. PLUNGE AND RUN The company’s HAIMER distributor, Productivity Inc., looked at the operation and suggested using the HAIMER Ba- sic Mill for the milling portion of the job to achieve better tool life. But since the Basic Mill is capable of drilling, roughing and finishing, the operators at Branick decided to try it for both steps of the process. After some calibration of speed and feed rates, the single tool method worked appreciably better than the previous technique. Now, operators using the HAIMER Basic Mill, plunge and slot the part in one smooth operation using one tool. “Before going to the HAIMER Basic Mill, the hook com- ponents were holding up production of the 7600 line,” said Jon Lewis, automation technician for Branick Industries. “We’re always chasing bottlenecks to improve productivity, and the change to the Basic Mill eliminated a big one.” BASIC MILL END MILL SAVES MONEY AND BOOSTS PRODUCTIVITY FOR BRANICK INDUSTRIES