Machine Tool Payback Calculator

Copper Development Association Inc. (CDA) has launched its Machine Tool Payback Calculator, a tool designed to help manufacturers realize the greater profitability and throughput they can achieve with brass on modern machine tools. The calculator enables shops to input their individual production, material and equipment data to assess the impact of new technology on their bottom lines. This allows manufacturers to discover how to leverage the high-end capabilities of advanced machine tools together with the high-speed machining capabilities of brass to improve productivity and profitability.

Due to the increasingly competitive market for manufacturing, shop owners frequently need to upgrade equipment, but justifying the cost of new machine tools can be difficult given the number of variables. CDA’s new calculator eliminates some of the guesswork and demonstrates that increasing machine throughput has a far greater impact on profitability than reducing factors such as machine purchase price, raw material costs or utility costs. And as raw material usage often has the most significant impact on throughput given sufficiently advanced machine tools, selecting materials such as brass that can be machined at aggressive metal removal rates without negatively impacting tool life can increase profits and decrease the payback period for machine tool investments.

Under the calculator’s model, the high-speed machining capabilities of brass become even more attractive in terms of productivity improvements. The material’s scrap value and exceptional machinability ensures the highest level of throughput with today’s advanced machine tools and the greatest possible profitability.

The calculator, located at www.highspeedmachiningbrass.com/profit, features fields for the key input variables for manufacturers’ profits and payback, including the percentage of scrap produced per part, the costs of materials and tools, the total price of machine tool ownership and the impact of labor costs in terms of the percentage of time operators spend on a given part. The results include net tool, material, utility, labor and maintenance costs, as well as the length of the payback period and annual profits.