St. Paul, MN (March 17, 2022) — An uncompromising commitment to providing the highest levels of service possible, Precision Products has grown and prospered into a multi-million-dollar operation in Greenwood, Indiana in their nearly 50 years in operation.
Today, Precision Products remains focused on customer goals and objectives, as they have since 1974. Their philosophy is to help their customers gain a competitive advantage by combining innovative ideas and technology into next generation solutions; solutions that reduce cost, increase efficiency, and result in significant labor savings.
Precision Product’s innovative technology includes the Matsuura LX-160 High Grade Vertical Linear Motor Machine. Matsuura’s linear motor machines, dedicated to the high-speed, high-accuracy market, are scalable and available with tailored options to specific processes.
The LX-160 is the ultimate 5-axis vertical machine equipped with fast and accurate linear motors in all axes for machining with high-speed and high-precision. The LX-160 is ideal for the medical and aerospace industries with exceptionally fast cutting and micro tools up to 46,000 RPM.
According to Owner, Bruce Palmer, your best programmers are your operators. He explains that although a typical machine operator would be trained to run a standard milling machine, “with the Matsuura, instead of standing in front of the machine loading parts, he’s programming the next job, prepping the next job, ordering tooling…one operator can do all those things.”
Precision Product’s Matsuura LX-160 is six years old, has never required maintenance and still maintains ultrahigh precision, even while machining graphite. Dedicated to the high-speed, high-accuracy market —with a focus on small workpiece processing and linear motor drive technology, the LX-160 at Precision Products has inspired Palmer to purchase a second Matsuura, plus most recently, a MAM72 machine.
Palmer explains that using the Matsuura LX-160 has created confidence based on its reliability machining closure tooling for the molding industry.
“Making the electrode is always a pain as it traditionally has numerous steps: we turn, we grind, we mill the electrode, but now with this machine we put the raw piece of graphite in and we take the finished electrode out, which goes directly into our EDM,” Palmer added.
“It’s really made our electrodes very cheap to make because with 42 pallets, it runs all weekend, and it has really taken us to the next level.”
In addition to 42 pallets, Palmer’s LX-160 High Grade Vertical Linear Motor Machine also has 338 tools and a 46K rpm spindle with an HSK 40 taper.
“With the high rpm spindle, we go down to a 0.2 diameter end mill and when you get that small rpm is everything,” Palmer said.
“Also, we do a little bit of grinding on it in the graphite with jig grinding speed 40 to 46,000 which is very efficient, and we’ve just been very thrilled with it.”
Palmer explains the company previously ran three jobs and now with the Matsuura LX-160, they reduced it to just one job on the Matsuura and in a very efficient and an incredibly fast manner.
“The old-school way we used to make a part round, then we would mill it, drill it, or grind it and we were doing all those pure manually,” Palmer explained.
The electrodes that Precision Products produce are considered expensive at over $100 each and are now almost labor-free utilizing the Matsuura LX-160 in the production process.
“You mount the raw material, turn the machine on, and come in on Monday to 40 finished electrodes that now have cost you $10 a piece, which is very cheap and with higher accuracy and ready to go in EDM,” Palmer said.
The Matsuura LX-160 allows Precision Products to run lights out machining, even through the weekend, with 42 pallets, 338 different tools. They can “set it and forget it.”
“With the Matsuura, it’s about the automation and the lights-out machining because that’s what it’s built to do and it does it very well,” Palmer said.
“It is a lot of the same mindset by combining operations, reducing the labor, automating it, getting out of the way the machine to do what it does, and it works every time.”
Matsuura’s 5-axis linear motor machines are unique machines in the industry: extremely compact, accurate, and well suited for medical parts, small aerospace parts, molds, and any other small complex parts. The LX Series of machines is constantly evolving and offers the ultimate platform in linear motor CNC technology.
A distinct aspect of the LX-160 is its ability to machine any part fitting into a 9” by 6.3” cylinder. Other LX-160 models include optional 2 or 42 pallets, 52 to 338 tools, and enormous part capacity of 45 lbs.
With the accuracy of the LX-160, the rigidity and the rpm that of 46K, Precision Products is also acquiring greater tool life. Optimum rigidity is assured on all Matsuura products via FEM and an established track record for excellence in engineering.
“It’s a linear magnet machine meaning it’s very fast and very accurate and the machine has the original spindle which runs 46k rpm all day,” Palmer explained.
“It’s been wrecked a few times, but the machine reacts so quickly to a crash that it doesn’t damage itself.”
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 about Matsuura, please contact: [email protected] or visit: matsuurausa.com.