LMC Workholding Success Stories

Axle Maker Cuts Costs and Improves Productivity with Neidlein Face Drivers from LMC Workholding

As seen in MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

Ron Tomaloff, senior manufacturing engineer for J.I. Case Corp. (Racine, WI) had a nagging problem. Tomaloff's plant manufactures 16 different sizes of axles for the entire line of Case agricultural and construction machinery. For years, plant managers struggled to find an effective means of performing an essential green turning operation. This demanding application involved turning a raw piece of hardened steel, ranging from RC 30-35 on a lathe, using a hydraulic face driver to hold the piece in place.

"If too much down pressure was placed on the part while we were turning it, the center would collapse and the axle would actually fall out of the machine," says Tomaloff. "We had to be very careful with our feeds and speeds, and consequently our throughput was very low."

After the green turning operation, the axle would have to be taken off the lathe and placed on a second machine so a long keyway could be milled down the shaft. This second operation not only took time to set up, but introduced more potential for error. In addition, because the face drivers were hydraulic, they were difficult to repair. Tomaloff knew there had to be a better way to get the job done.

After considering advice from Clay Baker, Case's local distributor of workholding tools manufacturer Logansport Matsumoto Co. (Logansport, IN), Tomaloff incorporated an LMC Neidlein face driver in the operation.

The LMC Workholding / Neidlein face drivers are designed to clamp the workpiece from the interior, or the edge/end, allowing the entire OD of a workpiece to be machined in a single operation. Since Neidlein face drivers are inherently self-centering, workpieces can be loaded in the machine and clamped quickly. Perhaps most importantly, LMC guarantees that Neidlein face drivers will have no movement of the datum point while providing high concentric accuracy. Once the center is positively clamped in position, the workpiece is securely gripped despite heavy cuts made at high speeds.

When a new Mazak Integrex NC Manufacturing/Turning Center was ordered for the green turning operation, Tomaloff decided it was time to integrate a Neidlein face driver into the shop despite the fact he had never seen one operate.

"I knew the results couldn't be any worse than what we were getting already," recalls Tomaloff. "I was also getting a lot of complaints from our toolroom because when the hydraulic drivers would go bad, the O-rings would have to be rebuilt. It was a real pain."

The changes turned out better than Tomaloff expected. Originally, the operation was running 250 sfm (76.2 m/min) at 0.002 ipr (0.05 mm/rev) at a cutting depth ranging from 0.018-0.200" (0.46-5.1 mm). With the introduction of the Mazak/Neidlein combination, the results improved to 550 sfm (168 m/min) at 0.017 ipr (0.43 mm/rev). Unlike the original hydraulic face drivers, the Neidlein face drivers held up remarkably well with pin life nearly quadrupled.

Tomaloff says the only time the Neidlein face driver's pins failed, he was to blame. "I was testing a new setup and torqued the part too much," he says. "The face driver actually worked as a drill, with the drive pins chiseling into the metal."

In the new operation, the Mazak machine allows the keyway to be milled down the center of the part, at a depth of approximately .5" (13 mm), eliminating the need to remove it from the machine. Despite the addition of a full operation, cycle time still decreased 35-60% (depending on the size of axle) and Case now runs only two shifts rather than two and a half.

Perhaps most impressive is the fact that over the course of one year, the Mazak/Neidlein combination has reduced overall standard costs 50-75% and has saved the company more than $250,000. Tomaloff attributes much of the project's success to the implementation of Logansport Matsumoto's Neidlein face drivers.

After successfully deploying the Neidlein face drivers in the turning/
milling operation, Case also implemented the drivers in other operations, including an extremely demanding hard-turning application. Axles made of hardened steel, ranging from 63-60 Rc, had to be hard-turned on a Mori Seiki machine with an accuracy of ±0.0005" (0.013 mm) on the bearing diameters. The operation created a large amount of tool pressure and Case was having difficulty achieving consistent repeatability, despite using CBN inserts. Once a Neidlein face driver was implemented in the operation, repeatability was achieved and despite the demanding conditions of the application, the operation has been running on the same set of chisels for over a year.

"We joke that Clay Baker isn't making any money off of us since the drivers are holding up so well," quips Tomaloff. "But he knows that whenever we have an appropriate application, we'll order another Neidlein."