Advanced Mechanical technologies

A2Z Manufacturing-Rocky Mountain Edition

A2Z Manufacturing-Rocky Mountain Edition (CO, UT, ID, MT and WY) Features Takumi USA

AMT Selects Takumi Mill Because It Exceeds Competitively

Priced Machines In Speed, Travel Size, And Chip Control

“Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, and Do What You Say You’ll Do!”

Advanced Mechanical Technologies (AMT) does just that. Operations Manager Frank Lewis says, “We communicate extensively with our customers to ensure that we can meet our customers’ delivery and quality metrics.” He continued, “Prior to getting a purchase order from our customers, we have discussions regarding their requirements and their delivery schedules. We reach agreement prior to accepting a purchase order — this allows us to provide outstanding quality and on-time delivery.” Jon Page, a mechanical engineering professional, founded the ISO 9001:2008 certified company nearly 20 years ago. Jon was raised by a family of entrepreneurs, and had spent a number of years employed in the medical industry as a design engineer. When Jon made the decision to launch his own business, designing and manufacturing medical test equipment and parts, he opened for business in his garage. Today, AMT is well versed in designing and machining complex parts and equally proficient at medical clean room automated assembly equipment and medical product development.

They have expertise with medical disposables and assembly fixtures, laser-etching multi axis positioning systems with onboard vision systems, pressure testers, dental paste dispensing and packaging equipment, ambulatory infusion pumps, to name just a few of their products. They additionally have been awarded patents on their syringe infusers, their multidose syringe mechanisms, and their auto injection syringe devices. Though the majority of AMT’s customers hail from the medical industry, including such companies as BDC Labs, Cardio Optics, Medtronic Navigation, Baxter Medical Products, Phillips Medisize, the University of Colorado Health Science Center and Covidien, the company also machines parts for the aerospace industry, with customers including Ball Aerospace and Bandit/Idex Corp. Frank says, “About half of our employees came to AMT with little or no machining background. Jon mentored each of them, and when superior people come to work at AMT, they stay.” Frank says that the average tenure for employees is 8 years. AMT doesn’t have a sales force. Frank says that customers come to AMT through word of mouth. “We are known for our expertise in prototyping for medical companies. Weoften earn new customers who come to us with difficult jobs that others ‘no bid’.

Our extensive experience with CAD design and programming allows us to assist our customers in the design of their fixtures.” AMT has a somewhat unusual approach to its business growth. Frank says, “We are very careful about growth — we are concerned about our superior employees being secure in their positions. We don’t believe in staffing up and down; rather we plan for controlled growth. Jon and I share in this philosophy, and I believe it has helped us to retain the team that we have today.” He added, “It is also a formula for repeat loyal customers.” AMT has a large number of long-term customers who they align their business to. “Our customer requirements dictate even the types of machines we purchase”, Frank says. AMT doesn’t purchase one machine tool brand as often happens in a machine shop. “We’ve got Haas, Mori Seiki, Sharp, and Southwestern Industries machine tools in our shop”, Frank elaborates. Months ago, an older machine that was causing headaches with extensive repairs and down time forced the AMT team to look for a new machine to replace the ailing one. Frank says, “Jon knew about Foothills Machinery and he contacted them to allow them to bid on our new machine tool purchase.” After careful evaluation, AMT purchased the Takumi VC0852, a three axis CNC machine that is equipped with the FANUC 0i-MF control. The VC0852 high-precision machining center features fast rapids, and is built with heavy-duty linear guides. Takumi design engineers adapted the world’s leading control to their rugged, durable machines to achieve higher productivity through speed, accuracy and reliability. Takumi is not a well-known machine tool brand in the United States – at least not yet. The builder has been devoted to the development, production and application technology of high speed machining centers for nearly 30 years, since its establishment in 1988. Takumi’s products include: CNC vertical machining centers, double column machining centers, high speed bridge machines and other machine tools Until recently, the Taiwan-based builder sold its machine tools extensively throughout China, Asia, and Europe. In 2015, Hurco (a leader in the development and manufacture of machine tools with integrated control technologies for the worldwide metal cutting market) acquired 2 superior machine tool manufacturing entities, including Milltronics and Takumi Machinery. The Takumi line was formally introduced to the North American market at IMTS in Chicago in 2016. At this time, Milltronics and Takumi had a combined customer base exceeding 18,000 installed machines throughout 30 countries.

Frank says, “The Takumi VC0852 offered the best value for AMT. For the price, we were getting with the Takumi VC0852 a bigger machine. It exceeds competitively priced machines in speed, travel size, and chip control.” The machine was installed at AMT literally a month ago (at the time of this article), so while formal metrics on performance improvements are not available, Frank expects to see substantial productivity improvements with the new Takumi. Frank also says the fact that the machine offered the FANUC control, which is so widely known, was key to their decision to purchase the Takumi. “It just minimizes our need for training”, he adds. AMT is one of the first few customers in Colorado to purchase a Takumi machine. As all machine shops can attest to, service is a key factor in their buying criteria. Though Frank and the team at AMT hadn’t purchased a machine from Foothills Machinery Sales in the past (and there wasn’t a large installed base of Takumi machines in Colorado), they were confident they would get the superior service they required. Foothills Machinery Sales has more than 3 decades of experience selling some of the best machine tools in the Rocky Mountain region. Frank says, “Our Foothills Sales Engineer, Frank Vuksinich, is outstanding in his knowledge and his follow-up. We are very pleased with the acquisition of our Takumi VC0852 and with our new machine tool supplier Foothills Machinery Sales.”

The combined Hurco, Milltronics and Takumi businesses represent one of the most comprehensive product portfolios in the machine tool industry, with more than 150 different models. To learn more about their offerings, contact Foothills Machinery Sales at 303-466-3777 or visit FoothillsMachinery.com

If you require a superior design and manufacturing entity for your medical test equipment, or are looking for a superior prototype shop for precision parts, contact AMT at 303 438-8721 or visit advmt.com

Published by: A2Z Manufacturing

A2Z Article
May / June 2017