LNS Customer Achieves Cost Reductions with Automation Cell

LNS, a member of Partners in THINC, recently published an article about the journey of one of their customers, the Gilson Company, as they added manufacturing to their company’s growth strategy, and quickly moved into automation as well. Here we’re sharing a few excerpts from the story of Gilson’s successful transition to lights-out production, which resulted in significant cost savings.

Outsourcing production of critical parts was putting a crimp in Gilson Company’s plans to move from strictly distributing products made by other companies, to making and selling some of their own. Machining these parts in-house required taking their first steps into the worlds of automation and the Industrial Internet of Things.

As sales volume increased, the company decided to bring previously outsourced part production into its fledgling in-house manufacturing department. Gilson’s Vice President of Manufacturing, Phil Babka, explains, “Until 5 years ago we were strictly a distribution company and, in fact, we currently manufacture just 2 – 3% of the products we sell. However, we’ve identified certain items that we can make ourselves to reduce costs, improve quality and better manage our inventories.”

Gilson makes three versions of its rotary sifter, a product that separates particle sizes of granular material. Each model requires six, 5/8” stainless steel rods of various sizes, each of which has its own unique features. Mr. Babka recognized that bringing production of these parts in house, and realizing the desired goals of cost-efficiency and superior quality would require a new manufacturing approach.

“When we first set up our machine shop we bought some used equipment including a manual lathe, manual milling machine, an older Okuma CNC lathe and a CNC cutoff saw. Using our existing equipment to make these rotary sifter rods would mean stationing an operator at the CNC lathe all day to constantly load material, run a part for about 30 seconds, take the part out and do it all over again. As sales began to take off, we realized that we needed a more cost-effective method capable of pumping out thousands of these parts.”

On a visit to a friend’s sheet metal fabrication shop, Mr. Babka observed an automated process that continuously feeds sheets onto a laser cutting machine, enabling lights out production. “Right then I knew what we needed.”

Mr. Babka contacted a number of machine tool suppliers and explained his requirements, “I wanted to be able to run production with minimal operator involvement during the day and run unattended overnight. So we needed to continuously feed material into a machine tool that could run the various part programs on its own, and then automatically unload the finished parts. The people who came up with the best solution were the applications engineers from Gosiger, Inc.”

The solution Gosiger devised was a fully automated cell consisting of 4 components:

• An LNS Quick Six S2 automatic bar feeder that uses a chain-driven loading rack holding seven, 6-foot long bars for diameters from 3/8” to 3 – 1/8” through a single guide tube that provides the support necessary for machining at high spindle speeds.
  
  
• An Okuma Genos L300-MW CNC lathe equipped with a subspindle, live tooling and the open architecture, Microsoft Windows^®-based OSP control that enables integration with both factory management software and peripheral devices.
  
  
• An LNS Blaze Air vacuum unloader that automatically removes parts through the back of the secondary spindle after both ends have been machined.
  
  
• The LNS e-Connect communications system coupled with the Okuma OSP’s API that enables the sharing of data between the LNS bar feeder and the Okuma OSP control to maximize production efficiency and material usage.

According to Mr. Babka, the cost of producing these parts in-house is about 25% of the cost to have them made outside. Equally important, thanks to the LNS e-Connect system and Okuma OSP control, material costs dropped dramatically – by more than 75%. He calculates that the entire automated work cell will pay for itself in approximately 5 years.

“We’re very happy with this system and are planning to add another in the near future. My advice to any shop that is considering an automation system is to make sure that, not only is the technology a good fit, but that the people you do business with will support you throughout the process. We couldn’t be happier with the applications engineers and others at Gosiger who worked with LNS to come up with exactly what we needed. Both the Gosiger and LNS teams were there whenever we needed them through installation, training and tweaking the system. I’d never heard of a Blaze Air until Gosiger suggested it, and it’s the perfect solution for unloading these parts. Likewise, the LNS e-Connect system was new to me and saves us additional time, labor and material costs.”

Click here to view more photos and read the full article.