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TCI Precision Metals ships custom, precision Machine-Ready Blanks throughout the U.S., saving shop owners time and money, while increasing production capacity by 25 percent or more. Machine-Ready Blanks are ready to be placed directly onto the customer's machining centers, eliminating time-consuming prep work.
Based on using customer provided data, practical experience and simulation software, TCI has effectively calculated the actual time and resources required to prepare machine-ready material to spec from rough stock. This includes sawing, squaring, grinding/milling to tolerances of +/-.0005" dimensionally and .0002" flatness, squareness and parallelism. Actual productivity gains vary depending on job specifications, but the results of this in depth analysis reveals many shops gain as much as 25 percent capacity using Machine-Ready Blanks, without adding equipment or people.
Additional value of using Machine-Ready Blanks is realized by shop owners who consider, often unrecognized, costs associated with prepping materials:
Direct labor cost, plus benefits and workers' comp
Unnecessary wear and tear of equipment, paid for, or not
Facility costs and general overhead
Tool costs
Waste
"There is a small premium to be paid on the front end for Machine-Ready Blanks vs. buying rough stock," said John Belzer, President of TCI Precision Metals, "but the time savings and increased shop capacity more than justify the expense. To manage customer quality, part price and delivery expectations shops have to become more efficient. It's all about shipping and getting paid faster. This is where Machine-Ready Blanks make economic sense."
Related Glossary Terms
- centers
centers
Cone-shaped pins that support a workpiece by one or two ends during machining. The centers fit into holes drilled in the workpiece ends. Centers that turn with the workpiece are called “live” centers; those that do not are called “dead” centers.
- sawing
sawing
Machining operation in which a powered machine, usually equipped with a blade having milled or ground teeth, is used to part material (cutoff) or give it a new shape (contour bandsawing, band machining). Four basic types of sawing operations are: hacksawing (power or manual operation in which the blade moves back and forth through the work, cutting on one of the strokes); cold or circular sawing (a rotating, circular, toothed blade parts the material much as a workshop table saw or radial-arm saw cuts wood); bandsawing (a flexible, toothed blade rides on wheels under tension and is guided through the work); and abrasive sawing (abrasive points attached to a fiber or metal backing part stock, could be considered a grinding operation).
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