We have expanded our machining capability with the recent investment in three new CNC machine tools. We upgraded our Piqua, Ohio, manufacturing facility with a bridge milling machine, a vertical turning lathe and a horizontal machining center. The aggressive investment replaced our aging manual machines, advancing the capabilities and the sustainability of our company.
Daniel P. French, Chairman and CEO commented, “This investment in our future is an exciting achievement for our company, which gives me great pride and will benefit our customers, our employees and our community. As a growing, world class organization that focuses on quality, innovation and continuous improvement, we have extended these values past our proprietary products and also applied them to the tools we use in our manufacturing processes.”
The new five face bridge milling center features a high speed spindle and a 90-degree, two speed geared head with programmable indexing increments. The mill is capable of machining parts up to 44,000 pounds.
We also added a new live tool CNC vertical turning lathe. The lathe features a programmable fourth axis enabling us to mill and drill on the machine and has a table load capacity of 11,000 pounds.
The third machine, a new CNC horizontal machining center, features a 15,000 RPM high speed machining controller, dual pallets and a full fourth axis 360-degree programmable rotary table.
We also invested in new programming software and tooling for the three new machines.
This investment and the expanded machining capabilities are a clear indication of our commitment to maintaining their domestic manufacturing, delivering high quality American-made products to our customers around the world. In addition, the new cutting edge technology gives us a competitive advantage in recruiting new hires when many manufacturers are struggling to fill open positions due to a work force skills gap in the industry.