About one year ago, Triumph Controls began implementing a “lean manufacturing” concept throughout their facility in an effort to increase production and reduce setup time. Installing a Midaco pallet changer system helped make the company’s new production model a success.
“It’s a pretty fair assumption that we do one setup per day,” says Charles Smith, Manufacturing Engineering Manager for Triumph. “With the Midaco system, we’ve realized up to a 90 percent reduction in setup time and an increase in efficiency of about 30 to 40 percent.”
Triumph Controls is a leading manufacturer of push/pull cables used in the avionics industry. Some of the country’s largest jet aircraft manufacturers, such as Boeing, use Triumph’s cables to control the operation of various components within their planes. An example of a push/pull cable is the flight control levers that attach to cables controlling flap modules, landing gear, etc. inside Boeing’s 777s, 757s, 747s, and 727s.
Pallet Changer Compliments Machining Center
Triumph is using Midaco’s manual M3016FL pallet changer system to complement its new vertical machining center. They purchased both the Midaco pallet system and the VMC one year ago, after the older machining system failed to operate efficiently.
“We did a lot of homework when deciding to purchase the new VMC and the pallet changer system,” Smith says. “We visited other plants that had the Midaco system and decided the system was a quality product and built to last a long time in a harsh machining environment.”
The return on investment had to be substantial to justify the expense of purchasing a completely new machining system. It was only after seeing the Midaco pallet changer in operation and witnessing its efficiency that the Triumph buying team realized that coupling the Midaco system with the new machine would provide a solution that would integrate easily into their new manufacturing environment, and create profitable returns.
“The VMC we replaced was old,” says Smith. “The newer machine had faster rapid rates and increased machine accuracy, but that was not enough increase in efficiency for us to justify a new machine.” He also added that the pallet changer reduced the setup time and allowed a significant increase in production, which brought the justification to within a two-year payback.
Tool Multiple Parts
The Midaco system combined with Triumph’s new VMC enables the company to tool multiple parts without resetting or recalibrating the part’s location on the machine tool.
“The pallet system changed the way we set up jobs—the manufacturing of components integral to the assembly of cables,” says Smith. “We’ve taken four-hour setups down to 20 min., and in some cases less than that.
“We dedicate the tooling onto pallets. The pallet location repeatability, we have found, is within two tenths of a thousandth of an inch. Because of this repeatability, we do not have to reset the location of a part being tooled. We’ve had this system for some time now, and we’ve seen zero degradation in the accuracy of the unit. And no debris is caught between the pallet and the receiver due to the (pallet changer’s) built-in air blow-off system.”
What started out as an experiment has become a successful new way of manufacturing parts for Triumph. Looking toward the future, Smith says the company is already reviewing installing another Midaco pallet changer system on his next machine knowing that the pallets are interchangeable in the same series pallet system with equivalent accuracy at +/- .0001".
“This is the first vertical machining center we’ve coupled a pallet changer to. I’m impressed with the ease of operation,” says Smith. “Basically, it’s a quality product that has helped us increase both our productivity and bottom line profits. It’s been a bread winner for us.”
