Kitagawa NorthTech Inc. provides turnkey, custom engineered workholding services. The company also provides design, engineering, workholding manufacturing, assembly, testing, inspection, documentation, installation and training.

Whether a machine shop is experiencing a productivity challenge or a specific machining problem hindering parts manufacturing in the production operation, Kitagawa NorthTech's in-house Productivity Team provides advanced applications engineering assistance and custom engineered workholding systems manufacturing. Kitagawa NorthTech's custom engineered workholding services are suitable for a range of machining applications for vertical, horizontal, and multiple-axis prismatic milling and turning, forging and casting applications.

Kitagawa NorthTech's dedicated productivity team engineers extensively study applications requirements, cutting conditions and workpiece drawings, which includes a review of geometric dimensional tolerance data. This is performed to identify the expectations and specific requirements of the customers' application. The company utilizes state-of-the-art, 3D software modeling tools, formulas and customized equipment to help design and engineer custom workholding solutions quickly, efficiently at the lowest cost possible.

Kevin Bennett, vice president of sales and marketing, states, "From eliminating bottle necks in machining operations, to reducing cycle times, scrap problems and/or parts slippage in the chuck, Kitagawa NorthTech's Productivity Team engineers have the expertise, skill set and knowledge-base to solve almost any prismatic and turning workholding problem. We deliver the best custom workholding solution available for customers."

To achieve total customer satisfaction, Kitagawa NorthTech understands custom engineered workholding needs to work flawlessly and consistently on every production run. The company wants this to be a painless process for customers. Its comprehensive testing and inspection process will guarantee that outcome, according to the company. Once an engineered workholding design is manufactured, the Kitagawa NorthTech Productivity team conducts a series of inspection processes and rigorous tests to ensure the new engineered solution performs exactly as stated and specified. The process includes a battery of tests which includes inspection of every component of the system, dry fitting components for proper assembly, and run outs and repeatability values testing of the workholding system.

Throughout the entire testing and inspection process, the company documents all testing and inspection efforts and records the results as an added quality control measure to guarantee machining success. This facilitates the customer's setup, installation and testing process. It provides important data and references points for the customer's own in-house testing. The customer can also take comfort that Kitagawa keeps all documentation for future assistance. Finally, Kitagawa NorthTech also offers installation and training services if required by the customer.