Die Maker Describes Five-Day Build for Tool Urgently Needed for Coronavirus Ventilator Production
Running 11 five-axis machines simultaneously, a die maker reduced a five week lead time to just five days. Here’s how.
Share
William Berry, president of Die-Tech & Engineering, says the process for rapid die building as described in an article about Die-Tech by Modern Machine Shop proved essential for building and delivering a die within five days that was urgently needed for making ventilator components in response to the coronavirus crisis. Indeed, showing that article to the customer as a way to explain his shop’s distinctive process helped Die-Tech win the job, Mr. Berry says.
Ventilator piston die made by Die-Tech & Engineering. Photo: Die-Tech.
The customer now using the die is Minnesota die caster Twin City Die Castings. The die makes ventilator pistons. Twin City’s request for quotation demanded a delivery lead time for die tooling of five weeks — much tighter than typical tooling lead times. Mr. Berry phoned the company and reports that he said, “You don’t have five weeks. You need the die basically now.”
Die-Tech’s process for streamlining die lead times involves beginning machining before engineering is done, setup relying on self-locating workholding, and five-axis machining. Though the MMS article was published a decade ago, Mr. Berry says the process described there is still what the shop follows. For maximum speed in this case, the shop devoted as many resources as possible to producing different components of the die in parallel.
“We put four lead engineers and 50 other guys on it,” he says. “At one point, we had 11 five-axis machines all working on different parts of it at once.”
The shop has since shipped other dies related to other ventilator components. By the time this post appears, four other dies will have been shipped to Twin City.
Referring to the MMS article, Mr. Berry says, “You wrote about how to make dies fast 10 years ago, and now we really need to put to use that capability.”
Significantly, though, the capability needed to be here — in the United States Before the crisis, the original piston part was produced using a die made in China. The U.S. mold and die making industry has been imperiled in recent years, leading to government measures to protect this domestic capability. Mr. Berry believes this crisis illustrates the importance of maintaining a healthy level of domestic tool and die expertise.
“If die making had all gone to China, there would have been no way to respond like this,” he says. That is, there would have been no way to get the cast ventilator components into production so quickly.
Related Content
-
In Moldmaking, Mantle Process Addresses Lead Time and Talent Pool
A new process delivered through what looks like a standard machining center promises to streamline machining of injection mold cores and cavities and even answer the declining availability of toolmakers.
-
How to Achieve Unmatched Accuracy in Very Large Workpieces
Dynamic Tool Corp. purchases two bridge-style double-column CNCs to increase the cutting envelope and maintain 5-micron cutting accuracy in the long term.
-
Cimatron's Updated CAD/CAM Software Streamlines Mold Design
Eastec 2023: Cimatron V16 includes a clean new user interface and increased automation for faster mold design, electrode creation and NC programming.
Related Content
In Moldmaking, Mantle Process Addresses Lead Time and Talent Pool
A new process delivered through what looks like a standard machining center promises to streamline machining of injection mold cores and cavities and even answer the declining availability of toolmakers.
Read MoreHow to Achieve Unmatched Accuracy in Very Large Workpieces
Dynamic Tool Corp. purchases two bridge-style double-column CNCs to increase the cutting envelope and maintain 5-micron cutting accuracy in the long term.
Read MoreCimatron's Updated CAD/CAM Software Streamlines Mold Design
Eastec 2023: Cimatron V16 includes a clean new user interface and increased automation for faster mold design, electrode creation and NC programming.
Read MoreFor This Machine Shop, Licensing Is the Answer to the Inventor’s Dilemma
Machine shops are natural inventors, but not necessarily suited to supporting and marketing a product. This Minnesota shop with an invention related to micromolding will share it through licensing.
Read MoreRead Next
Find Your Speed Outside of Machining
This short-lead-time mold shop achieves its most significant time savings by looking outside the machining cycle. However, one of those elements outside the cycle—palletized setup—ultimately led to cycle time savings via five-axis machining.
Read MoreOne Auto Parts Supplier's Shift to Ventilators: Now Making 1000s of Parts per Week on Die Delivered in Days
GM applying its supply chain expertise to enable successes such as aiding this ventilator maker to expand sourcing for 700 parts.
Read MoreRegistration Now Open for the Precision Machining Technology Show (PMTS) 2025
The precision machining industry’s premier event returns to Cleveland, OH, April 1-3.
Read More