b'Productive TimesA TIGHT FIT WITHOUT A SWEATN ueva Precision Inc. is not inter- StuffthatIneverheardof,long-running job.ested in expanding its busi- Eddie said. Theres an odd groupI take a lot of pleasure in taking ness. Similar to some other jobof materials that are approved to gowhatever challenges come through shops, the Milliken, Colorado, man- up into space because (of) the hy- the door, Eddie said.ufacturer wants to boost machiningdrogen embrittlement process thatThe latest machine tool at the efficiency and productivity. Own- happens in space. shop is a five-axis DMG Mori, which ers Heriberto Eddie CasanuevaAerospace customers often sup- has a 20,000-rpm spindle. With its and his wife, Leandra, are the onlyply saw-cut, heat-treated workpiecehigher spindle speed than the other full-time employees, which enablesmaterials that have undergone ul- three machines there, he found that customers to deal directly with thetrasound inspection and eddy cur- his standard collet chucks were un-person making their parts. rent testing. able to handle the increased cutting The main customers are in theThis means I basically machinespeeds and forces when taking ag-aerospace, pharmaceutical and un- hardened parts, Eddie said, somegressive cuts.manned aerial vehicle industries.of which are as hard as 59 HRC. You always want to remove ma-The list of workpiece materials in- Job lot sizes range from a fewterial as fast as you can, Eddie said, cludes aluminum, titanium, stainlesspieces to some that run into thebut occasionally it bites you in the steel and exotics. thousands over the full span of abutt. You either pull a part out of the Eddie Casanueva and his wife, Leandra, run Nueva Precision.38DECEMBER 2020 ProTimes.indd 38 11/15/20 10:07 AM'