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High
Tech Job Shop Reaps the Benefits of Automation
Automation in sheet metal punching
and cutting has proven itself in many manufacturing applications.
It is still rare, however, to find a contract sheet metal
job shop with a level of automation that rivals the biggest
product manufacturers. |
Serious
Automation Investment
CGI Automated Manufacturing (Cicero,
IL) is a job shop that made a serious investment in automating
its operation. Formerly Carson Gee Industries, Inc., the company
recently changed its name to reflect its position as one of the
most automated sheet metal job shops in the country, with unmanned
production in its turret-punching and laser-cutting cells. CGI
executives feel that automation is the wave of the future, not
just for large companies, but for contract manufacturers, too.
"We believe we are the only job shop with a six-shelf Amada
punching cell in the Chicago area," said CGI vice president
Gary Gurzynski. "We also think we're the only one with an
automatic loader and unloader on a laser cutter in this area.
Others have multi-shelf punching cells, but they're used for production
runs in larger companies, not for contract manufacturing. For
job shops our size, it's a riskier proposition than it is for
large OEMs. But if you're willing to take the risk, the technology
has proven itself, and it seems to be the way to go."
CGI operates an Amada Vipros 357 turret punching cell, Pulsar
Laser System with automated load/unload, and its Coma CNC turret
punch press to produce fixtures, enclosures, and parts for the
pharmaceutical, electronic, communications, railcar, lighting,
food processing and store fixture markets. The company runs its
punching cell around the clock, with unmanned second-shift operation,
and true lights-out production on the third shift and weekends.
The laser cell, which was installed in April 1996, is running
unmanned on the second shift. Gurzynski expects to begin unmanned
third-shift operation within the year. One technician runs both
punching and laser cells on the first shift.
Making the First
Move
Moving toward automation requires
a top-level commitment that Gurzynski obtained shortly after joining
his family's business in the mid-1980s. "When Gary came here
out of college 12 years ago, he knew the advantages of the CNC
equipment he had studied in school," said CGI vice president
Janice Nieman, Gurzynski's sister, and daughter of owners Richard
and Dorothy Gurzynski. "He graduated in August. By September,
we had purchased our first CNC punch press - an Amada Pega 344.
We joked that our parents must have bought the Pega for Gary's
birthday, because we didn't have any jobs to put on the machine
and it seemed like a pretty risky investment at the time."
Accuracy and reliability were the
key concerns of the younger Gurzynski, who sought higher precision
capabilities, quicker setups, and improved machine uptime to serve
a growing customer base in the lighting industry. With the new
CNC punch press and the subsequent addition of an Amada Coma 567
punch press for processing thicker material from 10 gage to 1/4"
(3.4-6.35 mm), CGI gradually shifted its focus from stampings
to fabrications.
Three years ago, the company traded the Pega for the automated
punching cell to increase its fabricating productivity and production
capacity. Last year, CGI added the laser cell to process nested
short-run parts and prototypes with better flexibility, improved
material utilization, and faster setups.
24 Million Hits
a Year
In its first 2-1/2 years of operating the punching
cell, CGI put 60 million tool hits on its 33-ton (294 kN), 58-station
turret punch press, with only one day of unscheduled downtime
to replace a power supply. While the cell is capable of achieving
82% run time, Gurzynski estimated CGI's "green light"
time at 65 - 70%, which produces enough parts to maximize the
capacity of CGI's bending and joining departments.
The punching cell incorporates a six-shelf material storage/retrieval
unit, a high-speed loading device which feeds the turret punch
press, an automatic unloading device with a pallet that holds
6,000 lb (26.7 kN), a line control system, and computer peripherals
to operate the cell unmanned. Each of the six material storage
shelves holds 4,000 lb (17.8 kN), with a maximum sheet size of
4' x 10' (1.2 x 3 m).
CGI primarily processes sheets from 16 to 20 gage (1.5-0.9 mm).
Although the cell is capable of processing material to 10 gage
(3.4 mm), CGI runs material thicker than 10 gage on its Coma turret
press, which helps to extend tool life in the cell.
The cell consistently holds punching
accuracy to +/- .004" (0.1 mm). Gurzynski expects this to
continue for years due to the design of the air blow/oil mist
tooling system which lubricates guides, turret bores, and punch
bodies. He says the air blow/oil mist system helped extend tool
life from five to 10 times longer than on other machines.
"We'll run a tool for a week
and put 100,000 strokes on it before sharpening," Gurzynski
says. "On the other machines, we have to check our tooling
for burrs at the end of each shift. When I look at the guides,
I don't see a lot of difference from when we installed the cell.
With the turret bore lubricated, it's going to hold up a lot longer
and keep the accuracy high. Also, because it's hydraulic, it has
a programmable punch cycle, so you can control the punch stroke
for accurate forming operations, such as louvering or punching
knockouts. The programmable hydraulics give us a lot of flexibility
we didn't have before."
Sheet Metal Laser
Cell Gets New Jobs
Installation of CGI's pioneering
laser cell with automated load/unload and part nesting was completed
in April 1996, after a shake-down period of problem-solving and
programming changes by engineers from Amada and Fanuc, the company
that supplied the system controller. Because the system was the
first to incorporate a laser with automated load/unload and complex
part nesting, the installation brought with it a learning curve.
Large nesting programs required the addition of a buffer board
to the Fanuc control, which required a customized rewrite of the
entire ladder sequence.
"With part nesting,
files become enormous - larger than the control can store in its
memory - so the buffer board feeds data in manageable chunks that
are constantly flowing in and out of the control," says Gurzynski.
"We were the guinea pigs to get this up and running. It's
working great now, so we can do our part nesting and material
utilization on the laser the same way we do in the punching cell."
"This kind of complexity is what
causes a lot of people to shy away from automation, but we knew
it would work out in the end because of our experience with the
punching cell. If we hadn't had the Vipros cell running flawlessly
for two years, we might have questioned our decision a bit more."
In its first year of operation, the 2000-W laser has given CGI
flexibility to take jobs that are better suited for laser than
for a punch press. "You go after a different type of work
with the laser," comments Gurzynski. "Shorter runs,
and parts with more intricate holes, openings and shapes - the
market for laser-cut parts seems to be growing quickly."
Prior to the installation, CGI conducted comparative time studies
which showed advantages of the laser cell over punching for more
than a dozen types of parts. Several parts that were previously
being punched and nibbled on the punching cell have been moved
to the laser.
The DNC controlled system is also capable of accepting DXF files
directly from CGI's customers, enabling the cell to cut parts
from programmed geometries. On complex parts, the system is able
to reduce programming time from four hours to10 minutes.
The addition of the two fabricating
cells allowed CGI to cut its average lead time in half, which
Gurzynski sees as a big advantage for a job shop. "We're
now quoting jobs for delivery in two to three weeks, instead of
four to six," he says. "We're actually producing a lot of
jobs in the one-to-two week range. We don't advertise it because
it puts a lot of stress on the shop, but in tight situations we
can produce some jobs overnight or within a couple days. We never
had that flexibility before."
In addition to increased flexibility,
reliability of the complex automation technologies was an important
consideration in CGI's strategic decisions. While this is a question
mark for many job shop owners, Gurzynski says CGI's experience
is that the reliability of the automated cells is simply a matter
of following simple recommended maintenance procedures.
Another key factor in choosing the laser cell automation was that
one technician is able to operate both cells simultaneously because
of the automated load/unload capabilities. Essentially, CGI was
able to add a highly productive manufacturing cell without additional
labor or training burdens.
The laser has also proven to be an efficient process for cutting
90% of parts to 1/4" (6.35 mm) thick for a series of truck
bodies the company manufactures for railroad inspection vehicles.
Because the laser cell can efficiently produce complex part geometries
with the tight tolerances required by the truck body assemblies,
it has allowed CGI to enter this new market and diversify its
customer base.
Automating More
of the Business
Increased production volume from
the punching and laser cells is supported by a forming department
with eight press brakes which struggle to keep up, even with the
new CNC brake CGI purchased to eliminate a bottleneck. The automated
cells have also added volume to the assembly operations of eight
spot welders and a dozen other welding and joining machines, including
MIG, TIG and robotic welders.
An internal computer network modeled
after the Internet is a key component of CGI's strategy to maximize
efficiency. CGI's "Intranet" not only links the automated
cells and other CNC equipment to programming and CAD workstations,
it also accomplishes CGI's goals in bar-coding jobs; collecting
labor data; shop floor control; and scheduling, inventory control,
cost estimating, and financial functions, such as accounts payable
and receivable.
Janice Nieman is currently engaged in an ongoing process of streamlining
CGI's internal networking to become as paperless as possible.
"Some of our customers are asking us for EDI invoicing and
other paperless functions," she says. "We're able to
receive CAD files via modem, and we're receiving e-mail through
our home page on the World Wide Web (www.cgimfg.com).
We feel the types of customers who value our automated manufacturing
will probably also want us to have a high level of integrated
information processing."
Two years ago, Nieman moved front office computers into the shop
and added a bar-coding system that allows employees to "wand"
jobs into the computer as they start and complete them. The system
keeps accurate track of labor data for each job, and allows for
up-to-the-minute job tracking and scheduling information.
"Gary can get into the system and do a lot of 'what-if' scenarios
for simulated job scheduling," says Nieman. "That's
very helpful in a job shop environment where things change rapidly.
The system is poised to allow customers to check the status of
their jobs via modem, but we're just in the initial stages.
"Right now, the system is capable
of linking drawings with a router that goes to the shop computers
so our operators and foremen can display parts and dimensions
for inspection purposes. It's capable of linking a number of documents
to the job routers. We can also attach notes to the routing files,
which greatly helps streamline communications from customers to
front office to the shop floor.
"Streamlining our internal processes is the next step,"
Nieman continues. "Our automation is solid. I think we're
ahead of the game in our networking. We feel we're positioned
well for the future growth we're projecting."
For more information
about CGI's capabilities, or to request a full color brochure, send
us an e-mail! Article
written by Jack Broughton,
Principal, Velasco-Broughton Associates, 815-397-6052, fax 815-229-6080
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