Having Trouble Viewing This? Read it online here! “Why Your Next VMC Should Be a HMC ?
As a Supervisor and an Operator you are tasked to be more efficient, reduce your workload, and improve and insure quality. As an Owner or Manager your concerns and questions could be slightly different, such as: “How do I increase my throughput?” “How do we separate ourselves from our competition?” and more importantly, “How do we reduce our overall operating costs?” I think these are all good questions but, the first thing you need to ask yourself is “Does this make good business sense?” With horizontal machining centers traditionally being more expensive than vertical machining centers, how can an investment be justified? Well before we go any further, let’s puts some facts on the table. Here is an industrial fact:
American Machinist & University of Michigan Surveys I have even seen HMC machines up near the 95-96% range, when tooled up and planned properly. So what we have just learned is it would take three VMC’s to have the same throughput as one HMC. For a general six-sided part you would have to perform six operations in a VMC. Six operations in a VMC also equals six set-ups, thus handling the part six times. (I am sure you can see where I am going with this.) On an HMC, that same part could be done in two operations. You would only handle the part twice, not to mention there would be no down time between operations because the second operation would be loaded while the spindle was cutting on the first pallet. Can you say efficiency? Wow! I apologize if I seem a little excited, but I can’t help but see the Benjamins falling from the sky! You probably already knew this, but many HMC purchases in the past have been based on longer running jobs. So why is an HMC the right machine for much of your general work? And how do I get to 85% efficiency when I run general job shop parts? The answer is - set yourself up to be successful:
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