Tula Machine realized that without new tooling, they couldn’t maximize the fast speeds its new machines were capable of while maintaining the level of quality for which they’d become recognized.
“On Monday morning, we don’t want to get a call telling us that a part we made failed in the race on Sunday,” says Tim Simmermon, Manufacturing Engineer for Tula Machine, Inc. Based in Chicago, Tula machines parts for the likes of NASCAR and the United States Military, who use them in applications where lives depend upon the kind of quality and precision the company can provide. Like most manufacturers, Tula wants to position itself for continued growth and profitability. To that end, the company recently made the decision to invest in high speed and 5-axis machining centers to expand its capabilities. But these high production machines require the right tooling to deliver high precision results on complex, high tolerance parts. The company realized that without new tooling, they couldn’t maximize the fast speeds its new machines were capable of while maintaining the level of quality for which they’d become recognized.
Founded in 1946, Tula Machine is a family business owned by Richard Simmermon, who bought the company in 1995 and has ambitious plans for future growth. Richard’s daughter, Sherri Bertram, works in the front office and both of his sons, Jeff and Tim Simmermon, work in the shop. “You don’t last as long as we have in a competitive market like Chicago unless you’re constantly looking for ways to differentiate yourself. It’s about anticipating what your customers are going to want and strategically preparing yourself to be able to fulfill those needs,” says Tim Simmermon.
Tula Machine had always been known for its precision turning work, but when customers began to approach them for help solving new and different challenges, the Simmermon family knew they had to evolve their business. If they wanted to stay competitive they had to offer their customers greater capabilities while still providing the highest quality parts…all with fast turnaround the and best possible pricing.
The Evolution
Tula purchased their first CNC mill in 1990 and in the years since they’ve taken on more complex milling jobs and continued to add additional equipment to their facility. In 2008 they purchased their first high speed machining center in response to customer demand for complex, tight tolerance non-ferrous parts, often required on short notice. Finally, just last year Tula began taking on extremely complex components after adding 5-axis milling to their list of services. The equipment purchases ensured Tula’s ability to keep up with changing demand, but they were acutely aware of the fact that their competitors could just as easily purchase the same equipment.
“After making these strategic equipment purchases, we found ourselves in a position to pursue new and different types of business. But our cycle times were still long, and we weren’t really gaining the kind of efficiencies we had hoped for,” says Simmermon.
Tula had just integrated a new Haas VMC into its operation and Simmermon was experimenting to improve cycle times and processes on a part for top NASCAR teams. The problem? The new Haas machine expanded their capabilities, but their current tooling was not allowing them to take full advantage of the efficiencies the machine offered, nor was it producing the kind of quality and precision NASCAR had come to expect from the company. In order to reduce cycle time and be more competitive, Simmermon decided to challenge his local distributor to help him explore how upgrading tooling could impact throughput and help him fully maximize the benefits of their new equipment.
Tooling often represents a very small percentage of a company’s overall machining cost, but it has a dramatic impact on the other 90+% of that overall cost. With that in mind, Tula’s local distributor introduced Simmermon to Cliff Carrignan, Sales Engineer for SGS Tool Company. Carrignan has been in the tooling business for over 32 years and with SGS for 9.
Test Tooling
Simmermon and Carrignan began working together to test a variety of products available from the SGS high performance line of tooling. As always, SGS provided test tooling on a guaranteed trial basis, as well as the necessary operating parameters. Simmermon remembers the surprising results of that first test. “The thing I remember most about that day was that I programmed the job using the feeds and speeds right out of the SGS catalog. From my previous experience (not with SGS), published feeds and speeds are usually nowhere near where the tool ends up running. When a new tool came up, I would look at Cliff and say ‘Really? 165 ipm?’ He would just nod and smile.”
Tula tested three of SGS’ high performance aluminum milling products, the Series 43 3-flute S-Carb, the Series 47 2-flute S-Carb and the Series 44 Ski-Carb, the original high performance patented Aluminum end mill. They also tested the high performance, high precision Series 135 Hi-PerCarb drill. Tests were conducted on a Haas VF-3 SS, with a 30 hp vector dual drive, 12,000 rpm 40-taper spindle, inline direct-drive, high speed rapids and high speed side-mount tool changer.
The results of those testing efforts are as follows:
“The best thing about using SGS end mills is that you can pull the feed and speed right out of the book and they work. They’re not theoretical figures, but ones that SGS has actually tested and proven,” says Simmermon. Unlike many other cutting tool manufacturers, SGS Tool Company has a fully staffed Research and Development department to thoroughly test every product and develop accurate operating parameters. This information, combined with the field test reports provided by its Sales Engineers, makes SGS uniquely capable of providing customized, spindle-based support to the end user.
Dramatically Improved Cycle Times and Throughput
The SGS milling and drilling products used on this project dramatically improved cycle times and throughput, but what about Tula’s reputation for precision and quality? According to Manufacturing Engineer Tim Simmermon, this was not an issue even at these drastically increased operating parameters. “The SGS end mills have allowed us to increase our throughput without decreasing our quality; if anything, our quality has gotten better using the S-Carb.”
Simmermon explains how the unique geometry of the S-Carb allowed for reductions in cycle time and simultaneous improvements in quality. After discussions with some of the R&D engineers at SGS’ Ohio headquarters, Simmermon learned that the engineered land on the S-Carb stabilizes the tool in the cut, which helps in aggressive milling applications. “Most parts are designed with standard inside corner radii, 1/4", 3/8", etc,” says Simmermon. “With most tools you need to use a smaller tool to interpolate that corner to get a good finish. The design of the S-Carb allows us to take a ½" tool and create a ¼" inside radius without any chatter. We had been using a competitive high performance long flute product and the chatter we got on the inside corner was horrible. The long flute S-Carb not only ran faster but produced higher quality results.”
By upgrading its tooling, Tula Machine was able to fully realize the benefits of its high speed machining centers, gaining over 120 hrs of production time a year. “We couldn’t be happier with the S-Carb. Their ‘support at the spindle’ approach over there [at SGS] really is the difference between just selling us a product and actually providing a solution,” says Simmermon.
