Hamilton’s Investment in Matsuura’s 5-Axis palletized machining pays off!
“We went from 44,000 spindle hours up to 294,000 hours, and what made that possible is that I can load the pallet and I can load 31 other pallets while it’s running,” Philip Linscheid, Director of Manufacturing-Machine Shop explains.
Selway Machine Tool worked alongside Matsuura, providing a depth of support and experience to achieve the best complete solution for Hamilton’s unique production process, ensuring that their manufacturing requirements were met.
Hamilton, founded in the late 1940s, is a leading global manufacturer with headquarters in Reno, Nevada; Franklin, Massachusetts; Timișoara, Romania; Bonaduz, Switzerland; and subsidiary offices throughout the world.
Specializing in the development, manufacturing and customization of precision measurement devices, automated liquid handling workstations, and sample management systems, Hamilton’s processes are optimized for quality and flexibility.
“The first problem we had was that Hamilton makes a lot of different parts with a lot of orthogonal features, meaning they’re getting machined on multiple sides, so 3 plus 2 is an absolute necessity,” Linscheid explained.
“Most importantly, we needed to be able to make a lot of different parts very quickly, so for us there really wasn’t a single source company where we could go and get a machine, a large tool changer, a large pallet changer, and have it work, but also have it in stock, so we could install it quickly.”
“Another important aspect is that Matsuura is a really similar company to Hamilton,” Linscheid added.
Since 1935 Matsuura has provided manufacturing solutions and new technologies to the world. Across generations and under the pioneering spirit of founder and First President, Toshio Matsuura, and his son, Masanori, Matsuura continues to create success, innovate to meet customer needs, and be a leader that shapes the industry.
Today, third generation President, Katsu Matsuura, and his son Yuto, 4th generation of Matsuura, continue this tradition expanding the business to meet rising global demands for groundbreaking manufacturing solutions.
“Matsuura is a multigenerational company, just as Hamilton is a multigenerational company, and so for us it really meant something when I spoke with Matsuura Machinery President, Katsu Matsuura and Yuto Matsuura, 4th generation of Matsuura Machinery, about my problems and my ideas. They already knew who I was, and even though we weren’t yet a customer, they took me seriously and thought that the crazy ideas I had might work.”
Linscheid’s inspired ideas took Hamilton from just over 40,000 uptime hours in 2017 to nearly 300,000 uptime hours.
Hamilton’s 23 Matsuura machines now includes 19 MAM72-35V 5-Axis Vertical Machining Centers, two MAM72-52V 5-Axis Vertical Machining Centers, and two H.Plus-405 Horizontal Machining Centers.
Matsuura’s global customer base demands high speed, high accuracy, and reliability from our products with technical, applications and service support that is second to none. Matsuura machines are built with our customers’ needs in mind.
“Before we had the Matsuura solution, we had some horizontals that were doing parts and we had a lot of CFrame verticals, and as everyone knows when the doors open and the machine stops, you’re not making any money, you’re not making chips, and you’re not making parts,” Linscheid explained.
“So, we went from 44,000 spindle hours in one year, what we call an earned hour, and up to 294,000 hours and what made that possible is that I can load the pallet and I can load 31 other pallets while it’s running.”
Incorporating decades of Matsuura expertise in machining center design and technology, the Matsuura MAM72 Series features high-accuracy, complex, 5-axis machining that meets the need for cost-effective unmanned operation.
“We also have pallets with more than one part, so I’m able to do more than one part on a 3 plus 2 situation, most of our parts are orthogonal they’re squares and rectangles, not true 5-Axis Parts, so the only way we could have done it was with the Matsuura solution, that was off the shelf,” Linscheid said.
Matsuura’s original automation and unmanned running systems provide solutions for organizations facing labor shortages by utilizing working hours effectively. With the deficiency in skilled labor to operate CNC Machines, automation provides the potential for expanding production and increasing profit while decreasing employment costs.
The MAM72 Series delivers long periods of unmanned productivity and provides versatility in the machining of very small to very large components. Matsuura has a high performance MAM72 solution for every industry.
With the Matsuura machines’ ease of operation and setup, Hamilton has found it effortless to educate new employees on how to run the Matsuuras.
“What I love is to start as an operator on a Matsuura with a with a self-centering vice solution, you can start anyone that day,” Linscheid said.
“It’s actually the work center that frankly I feel comfortable running day in and day out. There have been weekends, or maybe I’m at my desk a little bit too much and I want to get moving, so I’ll go run a MAM for a while and the reason is, I believe in that solution.”
Matsuura’s MAM72-52V, a high speed, large capacity 5-axis vertical machining center, enables Variable Part/Variable Production & Extended Unmanned Operation in this all-in-one machine.
The MAM72-52V is designed to handle a greater workpiece size than existing models, offers faster response times to market and delivers even higher productivity to meet customers’ business requirements for ever faster cycle times and cost down performance.
With the MAM72-52V, the maximum workpiece size is D520 mm x H400 mm with a load capacity of 300 kg per pallet: a 23 % increase in diameter, 50% increase in weight, and 75% increase in envelope volume compared to existing models.
“So what I love about the machine is that it’s easy to get started and it’s not as intimidating as a lot of other machine tools might be,” Linscheid explained.
Hamilton partnered with an apprenticeship program at a nearby community college, where students who are just out of school are now running Matsuura MAM72 5-Axis Machining Centers.
“The MAM72 machines also have the additional high level of technology to keep someone interested, and that’s something that’s important,” Linscheid continued.
Hamilton’s local Matsuura Distributor, Selway Machine Tool, worked alongside Matsuura, providing a depth of support and experience to achieve the best complete solution for Hamilton’s unique production process, ensuring that their manufacturing requirements were met.
Selway Machine Tool is the exclusive distributor of Matsuura products on the West Coast, offering a wide variety of manufacturing solutions including machine tools, accessories, automation, service, and application support.
Selway Machine Tool was founded in 1963 by Roy Selway. The company began representing Matsuura products in 1978. Many of the Matsuura 5-axis machining centers sold by Selway Machine Tool are producing parts for the Aerospace, Medical and Semi-conductor industries. The company continues to expand its operations, functioning in the same performance driven environments as its customers, focusing on providing value added products and services.
Selway Machine Tool sold the first Matsuura Horizontal with Multi-pallet System in the U.S. and has installed thousands of Matsuura Machining Centers on the West Coast.
Learn more about Matsuura Distributor, Selway Machine Tool, at: https://www.selwaytool.com/
More on Hamilton
The history of the Hamilton companies began in the late 1940s. Clark Hamilton, a chemical engineer, who had studied at MIT, developed a lead shielded syringe for precision handling of radioactive isotopes in collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory near Berkeley, California. Upon relocation to Whittier, California, and his garage there, Clark Hamilton’s activities quickly focused on the need for microliter liquid handling in the field of chromatography. By his effort, Hamilton became the world leader in sample handling for the field of chromatography, and in 1960 the fledgling company outgrew the family garage, proudly moving into its first of many rental facilities. These precision microliter syringes would provide the sample introduction to a chromatograph where precision, accuracy, and reproducibility were key in the separation science of chemistries. Even today, they remain the standard for use in chromatography.
In 1968, Clark Hamilton founded an identical company in Bonaduz, Switzerland to enable production of these syringes for the European scientific community. Today Hamilton Bonaduz AG continues to manufacture, design, and create new products in concert with Hamilton Company in the U.S. In 1970 the company in Whittier, California was relocated to Reno, Nevada where it remains today. The two companies work in concert today with competence centers driving innovation in a wide array of products. Starting in 1974 the management was turned over to Steve Hamilton, and with the support of his brothers, continues to drive the companies to this day. The business however has grown not only exponentially in sales, but also into automated liquid handling of chemistries that has benefited the world by enabling the first automated screening of whole blood for AIDs and hepatitis, as well as an unlimited array of other solutions that continue to need automation on a microliter level.
Hamilton on a global level is the largest automated liquid handling company in the world. Along the way, many new technologies have emerged in the areas of sensor and measuring technology as well as the founding of a medical company. Hamilton Medical AG, as a separate business, produces world class critical care ventilators with cutting edge technology enabling patient respiratory monitoring for real time ventilator adjustments, providing a superior level of patient care. Hamilton Medical AG and its subsidiary Hamilton Medical, Inc. now are number one in the critical care field of ventilation.
Our success has been to provide our customers with cutting-edge technologies that simplify and enable complicated solutions, and to provide strong customer care with products displaying not only innovation, but quality, precision, and reliability to be known as trusted solutions, limited only by the imagination of our customers, as we go forward into the future.
To contact Hamilton Company, please visit: https://www.hamiltoncompany.com/.
For more information on the Matsuura MAM72-52V Machining Center, please contact your local Matsuura USA Distributor or visit: matsuurausa.com.
Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc., located in St. Paul, MN is the U.S. subsidiary of Matsuura Machinery Corporation in Japan. Since 1935, Matsuura has been the forerunner in designing innovative technology and manufacturing solutions to a variety of industries around the globe. Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc. delivers unmatched excellence in 5-axis, vertical, horizontal, linear motor, multi-tasking CNC machine tools and machines with a powder bed metal AM platform with machining capability. Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc. provides the service, applications and technical field support that have always been the Matsuura standard for business. For more information on Matsuura products, contact: [email protected].