b'I can have someone running the machine proficiently in about two weeks.to 500 pieces and are for OEMs inthemachineprofi-the agriculture side of the business.cientlyinabouttwo We have long-term partnerships,weeks,Graetzsaid. some more than 50 years in length,Mazatrolconversa-with most major agriculture OEMs. tional programming en-Workpiece materials range fromablesoperatorswho steel and cast iron to bronze andarent expert G code aluminum, and tolerances are typi- programmers to be pro-cally as tight as 0.0076 mm to 0.0127ductive quickly.mm (0.0003" to 0.0005"). Graetz Manufacturing Graetz said the company reg- runs four 10-hour shifts ularlyaddsequipmenttoim- per week and employs prove efficiency at its 12,077-sq.-mabout 50 workers, some (130,000-sq.-ft.) facility, and one ofof whom have been with the shops most recent acquisitionsthe company for 30 to 45 was a Mazak VC-Ez 20 three-axisyears. In addition to the vertical machining center. VC-Ez 20, the company I believe it was the first one thathas three other VMCs, came off the line, he said. onedual-pallethori-Graetz said the shop exploredzontal machining cen-its options but had positive experi- ter, nine CNC lathes, 30 ences with Mazak turning centers ingear hobbers and some the past and one employee was fa- Mazak manual equipment.miliar with this size of machine. TheShown is a selection of two-jaw clutches for gearboxes thatAlthough the VC-Ez VMCs travels are 1,050 mm (41.34")Graetz Manufacturing produces on a VMC. 20 VMC is not equipped in the x-axis, 510 mm (20.08") in thewithautomationfor y-axis and 635 mm (25") in the z-axis. of young people are computer lit- lights-out operation, Graetz said (That employee) said this will fiterate and immersed in the internetthe shop operates 2,500 to 3,500 the bill for what were trying to do,and video games, they are typicallyunmanned machine hours per year.Graetz said. not trained in the trades. We do lights-out manufacturing He said another attractive aspectHow do you fit the bill of whatwhenever we can, he said. Some-of the VMC was that it is relativelythe current teaching structure oftimes we make runs of multiple parts easy to program. Mazak reports thatschool is? he said. The Mazakor put multiple parts in different the machines Mazatrol SmoothXscreen is like one big video game. workholding devices on a machine CNC includes full Mazatrol conver- He added that Graetz Manufac- to make it as efficient as possible.sational programming and EIA/ISOturings purchase of the machineGraetz said the shops business G code programming compatibili- was an attempt to attract peoplegrows at a steady average of 20% ties, along with Quick Mazatrol forwho can perform G and M codeannually.easy part-program creation andprogramming at the machine. Were consistently overbooked confirmation and Mazatrol Twins forIts a speedier process of pro- by 200% or 250%, he said. To offline part programming. gramming to set up a simple job,meet that growth, we rely on a com-Graetzpointedoutthewell- Graetz said. bination of new equipment and au-known challenges of attracting andThemachinesCNCincludestomation. If you dont have the man-retaining workers with the skills toa 381 mm (15") capacitive touchpowerlike everybody these days program and operate machiningscreen with a full keyboard. you automate more to keep the equipment. While the vast majorityI can have someone runningmachines running.CTEctemag.com/cteguide.com39ProTimes.indd 39 6/15/23 12:57 PM'