KD Specialties replaced an older floppy disk using Trak machine with the latest Trak DPM2 with the ProtoTrak KMX controller back in October. They liked it so much they purchased a second machine and more than doubled their production.
Greg Ludlum of KD Specialties in Grass Valley, CA came on board as managing partner 18 years ago, into this 26 year old company. They make the same parts today as they did back then — only now they’re more automated and have a staff of eleven. Their largest customers represents the majority of their annual sales, and they like it that way. Where some company’s value diversity across different industries, KD Specialties focuses all their efforts on making parts for the transportation industry.
“To simplify for people not involved in manufacturing, I just say we work in transportation,” states owner Greg Ludlum. “When you look closer at it, we supply thousands of different parts for trolleys, streetcars, trains, trucks, but mostly buses. If you’ve ever gotten on a bus anywhere in the country that has the low curb-height entry, you’ve seen our parts. The rental car shuttle you took today at the airport — that yellow, illuminated step up to the back section of the bus — that’s the part we specifically purchased the new TRAK mills to produce. A typical week we manufacture a set of parts for 45 buses. We make all the dash panels, the electrical connector panels, the illuminated steps, and a ton of other smaller items like ‘in emergency break glass’ signs and thousands and thousands of decals.”
KD has a wide range of capabilities, from decals, screen printing, digital printing and powder coating to waterjet cutting and milling. “Most of our parts are assembled in-house,” says Greg. “You might not know it at first glance, but seemingly simple parts might go through as many as 15 different operations by the time they’re delivered. A typical bus switch panel will be laser etched from a micro-film acrylic sheet, paired with a matching piece of aluminum cut on the Flow waterjet — no text, but with switch holes and slots — then painted, adhesive-bonded, fitted with fiber optic or incandescent lighting, epoxied, labeled, and assembled. “We do thousands of these a year. When I was hired, we had two lasers, and now we have six Universal Laser CO₂ lasers just to keep pace with production.”
With 11,000 sq. ft. and eleven employees, the KD Specialties team focuses their efforts within their own departments. “We are very service-oriented,” Greg explains. “We have to be, based on the nature of the beast. For example, the buses are assembled in California on a chain system. The entire 45-bus order is produced on a single production line before being driven to the delivery point. Our customer can’t deliver a bus if it hasn’t been signed off as being in perfect condition. All our parts arrive in perfect condition, but there are scratching issues occasionally caused by installers. So, if an inspector says the ‘break glass’ sign has a scratch and the bus doesn’t pass, that holds up the entire order. We will stop what we’re doing and get them a new part that day, regardless of who is at fault. From day one our motto has been ‘never give them a reason to look anyplace else.’ There are always people who will do it cheaper, but they will never find a company as dedicated to servicing them as KD Specialties.”
In their ongoing effort to best serve customers, Greg replaced the older of their two aging TRAK mills — a machine that still had a floppy disk drive. “We loved our two TRAK mills,” says Greg. “One was just getting really old and that made it difficult to do anything. It still held the tolerances we needed, but it was the weakest link when it came to production. It was also only a 2-axis machine, and we wanted the added benefits of the current 3-axis model. So Last October I called up Mike Fedyk, owner and CEO of Fedyk Precision LLC. I’ve always liked dealing with Mike. He has a great understanding of our needs and offers great service before and after the sale.”
“The DPM KX2 delivers quality machine tool iron, advanced CNC hardware, and the easy-to-use ProtoTRAK KMX CNC,” says Mike Fedyk of Fedyk Precision LLC. “The TRAK DPM2 is a 3-axis CNC bed mill that strikes a compelling balance between manual flexibility and CNC capability, making it a popular choice for short-run production environments like KD Specialties. It features a 9” × 49” table with 32” × 16” × 27” of axis travel and a 5” quill stroke, capable of holding workpieces up to 1,320 lbs. Power comes from a 3 HP spindle motor with a top speed of 4,200 RPM and an R8 taper, making it well suited for a wide range of cutting operations. On the accuracy side, positioning and repeatability are rated at 0.0005” or better — more than adequate for toolroom-grade work. The heart of the machine is the ProtoTRAK SMX CNC, a Windows-based control that sets TRAK apart from conventional CNC mills. It allows operators to choose the CNC configuration that fits the job — whether that’s pure manual operation, 2-axis CNC, or full 3-axis CNC — and programs can be entered directly at the control or imported from CAD/CAM files. The control also supports DXF and DWG file conversion directly to program events, eliminating the need for post-processing in many cases. One of the DPM2’s most practical strengths is its TRAKing feature, which lets machinists use real handwheels to drive the servos manually while the control tracks position — a workflow that experienced operators find far more intuitive than jogging on a conventional CNC. Spindle speeds are programmable through the controller for automatic operation or set on the fly in DRO mode, and the machine supports both conversational programming and G-code. Greg and his team were already well versed in the TRAK platform, but the DPM2 is more advanced than what they were used to.
After just a couple of months in service, Greg reached back out to Fedyk Precision and ordered a second machine with the same specs. “We have two primary jobs that take up most of our spindle time,” Greg explains. “One is milling holes and slots in a nasty fireproof polymer called GPO3 for electrical connector panels, and the other is the step plates I mentioned before. Currently we have one of the new machines dedicated solely to GPO3 milling. We use the other new mill and the older TRAK DPME2 with the ProtoTRAK Edge 3 controller as op one and op two. Here’s the kicker — we are milling holes that we used to just drill. They are primarily used as a blind hole, using predetermined settings to correspond with LED locations. Op one has 12 different holes milled rather than drilled because it does less damage to the powder coating and leaves a cleaner finish around the holes. It takes a little longer than just drilling, but it is well worth the time cost to keep the parts in pristine condition. Op two flips the part over and mills six more holes.”
“Thanks to the new machines, I’m able to run all three machines simultaneously now,” says one of KD’s machinists, Don Marshall. “We created a small cell, and it has made big gains in daily production across multiple products. The kick plate, for example, is set up so each op finishes in the same amount of time. I load a part, unload a part, and keep it all running. The TRAK machines have large enough travel that we can reconfigure our workholding to get multiples on a single setup to increase productivity when we need to.”
After 18 years, Greg still loves what he does every day. He’s built a great team and genuinely enjoys the work. “I’m getting up there and could retire,” Greg concludes. “But I just like what I do. Cancer couldn’t stop me from working, and I’m not sure what would. I like being in a position to invest in the company and see that expenditure pay off right away. We are pretty well dialed in and deliver the best parts possible to our customers. That’s a great feeling we all share here at KD Specialties.”
Left to Right – Thomas Wakefield, Sandy McGuire, Charlene Lockwood (production supervisor), Greg Ludlum, Don Marshall, Ken Hull, Jamaica Karr, Kellie Bradley, Jered Davis with Troy Groves and Kristin Ludlum (not pictured)