Job Shop Discovers and Fills a Fishing Need

When he’s not involved in servicing customers or producing parts, Blake Price, vice president of Ideal Tool and Manufacturing in Sedalia, Missouri, can often be found on one of the local lakes fishing for bass and crappie. On one such excursion, Blake and his father, Todd Price, noticed the need for an improved mount for their electronic fish finder and subsequently developed a design for a more effective and efficient device. Realizing the market potential for such a product, they and their team initiated the development of a manufacturing protocol.

Ideal Tool and Manufacturing, co-owned by the two, services the marine, natural gas, compressed air and cable industries, among others. The company maintains 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space and an additional 25,000-square-foot warehouse facility. Founded three decades ago, the shop currently has 30 employees and operates two shifts.

“Since developing our original product, we have added others to our product line,” Blake Price explains. “Over the last four years, demand has grown so fast that today, our products for the marine industry, which are marketed under name BeatDown Outdoors LLC, account for about half of our total production. In addition to manufacturing, we also added a sales department and sell to a variety of customers, including boat finishers, box stores and direct sales through our website.”

As production increased, Price and his team explored the possibility of automating the manufacturing process. Working with the Automation Division of Hartwig Inc., located in Kansas City, Missouri, they defined the production objectives and ancillary needs required. The result is a manufacturing cell comprising an Okuma LB3000 CNC lathe, a Load & Go robotic system and an LNS North America bar feeder. The system produces ten different parts in runs from 500 to 2,000. Parts sizes range from 1-inch diameter, 17 inches in length to 5.5-inches diameter by 4 inches in length. The material is aluminum, and tolerances are as tight as 0.001 inch.

The turning center is equipped with a 12-station turret and carries eight tools on the main spindle and four or five on the sub-spindle. Speeds range from 2,500 to 3,000 rpm. “We don’t push it,” Price says. “What we’re looking for is consistency, and considering the number of parts we produce, efficient chip control is a necessary part of the equation.”

Key to maintaining accuracy in a high-production environment is the 65-mm Hainbuch Spanntop chuck with three-jaw module adaptation. “We opted for the three-jaw chuck module because of the wide range of part diameters,” Price notes. “We can handle all the sizes we produce without having to change chucks.”

Steve Gilbert, sales engineer at Hainbuch America, points out that both spindles on the Okuma turning center are equipped with Spanntop chucks. “Designed to accommodate high-precision collets with fast and easy changeover and maximum repeatability, the chucks can be converted to the three-jaw module in one minute. Three bolts on the face of the chucks fasten to the adapter, and a center bolt moves wings that connect to where the collet would normally be seated. On the back of the chuck is a zero-point system that zeroes it into the collet taper. This results in absolute security and the ability to maintain concentricity over multiple part sizes and changes. Operations performed at Ideal are rough and finish turning, milling, countersinking and drilling and tapping. The high precision design of the Hainbuch chucks ensure consistent results.”

Blake states, “In working with Hartwig, our equipment distributor, on the design for the cell, they enthusiastically recommended Hainbuch chucks for their versatility, dependability and high-precision performance. By incorporating the three-jaw module with the Spanntop’s high repeatability, we’ve been able to eliminate changeover times, as well as the need to stock an inventory of different-sized collets. And, we can handle the entire parts family in terms of size.”

The success of Ideal Tool and Manufacturing’s first automated cell has resulted in plans for similar systems in other areas. “Today, one of the greatest problems that we and other manufacturers face is the shortage of qualified people. Sport fishing is changing, and the increasing demand for products such as ours has resulted in the need for higher production involving less personnel. Automated systems that can deliver the parts quantities we require while maintaining our high-quality standards will help us to meet our goals and assist an increasing number of fishing enthusiasts in coming home with more fish!”