Reduce time producing large parts

In addition to producing compressors, including reciprocating, swash plate, wobble plate, variable and air brake designs, T/CCI Manufacturing LLC offers CNC contract machining and assembly services. For large-part applications, the Decatur, Illinois, company has six Toyoda horizontal machining centers, two Hankook vertical turning lathes with 63″ and 78″ swings and live tooling, and two large boring mills—one from Kuraki and one from Kia.

To ensure that T/CCI has a backup machine for its boring mills and to reduce the time required to produce a part, the company added equipment this year, purchasing a new FH1600SW-i HMC from Jtekt Toyoda Americas Corp., Arlington Heights, Illinois. “The 1600 can do anything that those two boring mills can do,” said T/CCI President Richard Demirjian.

T/CCI Manufacturing machines components for the mining industry primarily on its Toyoda FH1600SW-i horizontal machining center. Image courtesy of T/CCI Manufacturing

He added that the new HMC is responsible for machining cast-iron and cast-steel hitches, brackets and frames for Caterpillar and Komatsu mining equipment. “That business is picking up tremendously, and we are seeing a lot of work come from those two companies.”

The HMC has a maximum workpiece swing of 3,200mm and can hold a maximum load of 8,000kg. T/CCI often machines individual parts, which these two customers then weld together. “We get those big weldments back, and those go on the machine and take up all of the swing,” Demirjian said.

The new HMC enables automatic part probing, which is a major timesaver, he noted. In contrast, the two boring mills require manual touch-offs. Every casting has to be qualified via probing, which can take 60 to 90 minutes.

“With the Toyoda and the automatic probe,” Demirjian said, “you could be ready to cut 10 to 15 minutes after the pallet cycle is set and eliminate human error.”

Compared with the single-pallet boring mills, Demirjian said the new dual-pallet HMC, which is T/CCI’s largest, significantly enhances production efficiency. Loading and unloading some castings into a boring mill with a 10-ton hoist consumes 20 to 30 minutes. On the other hand, having two pallets enables an operator to load and prepare a part on one pallet while the machine cuts a part on the other pallet.