Category Archives: Case Studies

Customer Profile:

Located in Houston, Texas, Pinnacle Machine Works is a manufacturer of oilfield couplings ranging in size from 4.5” to 10.625”, as well as a provider of threading services of full-length pipe in the same size ranges. Established in 2013, Pinnacle Machine Works has more than 100 employees and is housed within a state-of- the-art facility licensed by API to API 5CT and to API Q1 standards.

Challenge

As Pinnacle grew, in late 2017 they embarked on a mission to transform and improve productivity. This involved a re-organization of the manufacturing plant, the rollout of lean initiatives and an investment in new tooling. As this transformation progressed, it unveiled additional opportunities for improvement. In particular, it became clear that quality still needed to improve and inspection only, as a means of improving the quality of their product, was not...

Over recent years, a wide range of advanced machine tools have been developed to help satisfy global aerospace manufacturing industry’s requirement to produce parts faster than ever before. Although these innovative machines manufacture complex components within much faster cycle times, often increased production levels create bottlenecks in inspection departments. To help avoid these hold-ups, increasingly progressive aerospace manufacturers are including state-of-the-art inspection technology in their investment plans. Having selected the most appropriate machine tools to enable the efficient production of blisks and IBRs (aero-engine components consisting of a rotor disk and blades), the management of ITP Engines Ltd. recognized the need to invest in advanced quality control equipment. The proposed inspection system needed to be capable of accommodating the demanding dimensional tolerances of the company’s blisks and IBRs, and also have the required high-speed, high-accuracy scanning...

Mitutoyo helps meet customer expectations in the realm of deep hole boring, where diameters are more than 20 mm. One of the specialties offered by Hone-All Precision Ltd. of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, is the machining of nickel-chromium-based super-alloy components to tight tolerances. These oxidation and corrosion-resistant materials, typified by Inconel and Hastelloy, are well-suited for service environments subject to extreme pressure and temperature, and therefore, are favorites of the petrochemical industry, however, they are very difficult to machine. Accelerated tool wear is a constant concern. This is particularly true in the case of bored-hole features that sometimes approach three meters in length and which usually have to be finished by honing to meet stringent customer specifications. Form accuracy shaped up Due to the length of a typical bore, obtaining the accuracy potential of single-point tooling is impractical, except...

Mitutoyo UK recently completed the installation of the company’s largest ever coordinating measuring machine (CMM) sold in the UK. The Crysta-Apex C CMM, with a measuring volume of 2,000 mm x 4,005 mm x 2,005 mm, enables Express Engineering to undertake the rapid, accurate inspection of large oil and gas components, including huge wellheads. Established in 1973, Express Engineering has grown from its origins as a precision engineering and tool-making company to what is now a leading global contract manufacturing group. Express Engineering supplies the global oil and gas market with a wide range of highly integrated precision machined components, kits of parts and fully assembled pressure tested products, including wellheads, christmas tree valves, manifolds, completions, tooling, flowlines and connections. During the past four decades the company has earned an enviable reputation for producing high integrity products...

Incorporating a laser scanning micrometer into a quality control routine pays off for metal plating ad coating services supplier. Tawas Plating Co. & Tawas Powder Coating Inc. (Tawas City, MI) provides metal plating and coating services to automotive, aerospace and other manufacturing sectors. Almost from the beginning, Tawas experienced strong demand for its electroless nickel plating, which provides a combination of lubricity and wear-resistance, as well as dimensional control, corrosion protection and superior cosmetics. As the name suggests, electroless nickel plating does not rely on passing an electric current through a solution to form a deposit. Instead, the process depends on an auto-catalytic reaction to deposit a nickel coating on a substrate. According to Al Alexander, plant manager at Tawas Plating Co., an important advantage of the electroless process is the relative ease with which it can be...