Granby Mold, Walled Lake, Michigan, is a premier mold maker with an expertise in the precision machining of prototype aluminum molds and hardened stainless steel molds. The company specializes in smaller single and multiple cavity molds, and also machines die details for a local die maker.

In order to improve machining efficiency, Granby Mold managers decided to move into hard milling to eliminate spotting, create better finishes and reduce or eliminate the need for benching. "Our primary customers are in the automotive industry and supplier competition in that market is fierce," said Granby Mold owner John Turcotte. "We selected the Okuma MB-56VA because we wanted a machine that would take us to another level of performance in our business. We wanted a machine that would perform highly accurate cuts in difficult-to-machine materials."

One of the factors that made the Okuma machine attractive to Granby Mold was the level of application support available from the local Okuma distributor. "For a small company like ours, purchasing a new machine represents a significant capital investment. It was extremely important that the machine distributor had applications engineers on staff to show us how to use the machine properly so that it could quickly become operational and meet our business objectives. Our Okuma distributor was able to do that for us quickly."

The ROI has been fast at Granby Mold. The company has achieved its objectives of reducing spotting and benching and has found that it does not have to perform polishing as often as in the past. "We want the best tools we can put on the floor so that we can remain competitive in the market, plus bid on more jobs."