Partnership Helps Keep Precision
Products Ahead of Competition

While many companies talk about forming vendor-customer partnerships, Weldon Machine Tool and Precision Products of Tennessee have quietly gone about doing it.

Precision Products, based in Springfield, Tennessee, is renown in the metalworking industry for its can tooling manufacturing capabilities. The company produces cold-formed necking dies, carbide punches and other parts used in the manufacture of steel and aluminum cans. Its capabilities include the grinding of carbide and ceramic parts and non-round grinding. While its success can be explained by many factors, including a creative approach to manufacturing that doesn't hesitate to test conventional wisdom, the company is quick to give a share of the credit to Weldon and the close working relationship the two firms have developed over the past nine years.

Bob Rawls (left) and Precision Products operator Daryl Gregory (right) inspect a part ground on one of their Weldon 1632 Gold grinders.

"We don't think we could take our same methods and employ them with any other grinding machine we know of today," says Precision Process Engineer Bob Rawls. "In fact, I'm sure we couldn't."

Precision and Weldon launched their informal "partnering" relationship in 1989 when Precision discovered in Weldon a can-do attitude that was missing at other grinder manufacturers it was visiting. At the time, Precision was looking to shift its manufacturing processes away from conventional plunge or traverse grinding with the idea of using CNC interpolation grinding instead. That changeover, Precision was convinced, would allow it to produce better-quality products with shorter lead times.

"At that time, nobody else was able to do the interpolation grinding with superabrasives to the extent that we've since been able to do it," explains Rawls. "In fact, some of the major grinder manufacturers told us, not that it was impossible, but that it was impractical, that the time and money invested couldn't be justified."

By contrast, "Weldon never once told us, 'You can't do it,' " Rawls continues. "They said, 'You can do it, we'll just have to think about it.' As it turned out, whatever I could dream up, we were able to do together."

Precision's first purchase from Weldon, in 1989, was a 1632 grinder equipped for both OD and ID grinding. Only nine months after it had been installed, Precision concluded that the machine needed to operate more quickly. Weldon, which is based in York, Pennsylvania, demonstrated the same willingness to listen that it had evidenced in the first meetings between the two companies, and quickly arrived at a solution.

"Weldon came down and made some changes to the machine while it was on our floor to give us the additional speed we needed," Rawls recalls. "Later, on that same machine, we added encoders to convert the machine's work speed from inches per minute to inches per revolution." This allowed Precision to use the same computer program with the same feed rate to go over parts with a broad range of diameters without having to rewrite the program, which controls the grinding process.

Over the next several years Precision bought five more Weldon grinders, each time incorporating changes it had made on its existing machines and adding further refinements to them. "I would dream up the process, and Weldon would come back with an answer," says Rawls. "It was a growing thing. As we found more valleys, Weldon would come back and help us build bridges across them."

That partnership has benefited both companies. While Weldon is one of several manufacturers of CNC cylindrical grinders producing high-quality products, its ability to tailor its machines to Precision's specific needs has led Precision to return to Weldon time and time again for new grinders. As a matter of course, that has meant that Weldon has come to know Precision's business, including its manufacturing techniques, quite intimately. While some companies might balk at the idea of becoming too dependent upon any one supplier, or sharing too much information with them, companies that have mastered the partnership paradigm, from Precision Products to giant corporations such as Motorola and Chrysler, have learned that the benefits (reduced costs, improved quality, faster cycle times and more creative technology, to name only a few) far outweigh any potential disadvantages. They've also learned that sharing information and respecting confidentiality are simply part of the partnering process.

"One of the things I like about Weldon, and something that Larry Bringard, president of Precision, particularly appreciates, is the fact that Weldon has always maintained our confidentiality," confirms Rawls. "They could have sold machines by telling people what we're doing, but they have maintained our confidentiality all the way through our relationship."

The latest addition to Precision Products' fleet of Weldon grinders is a 1632 GOLD model that features a unique shear damping base design developed jointly by Weldon engineers and Dr. Alex Slocum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The base design provides superior damping and thermal stability, eliminating lengthy warm-up periods during which metal products otherwise couldn't be ground to close tolerances. "With this machine, we just start up and go," Rawls says. Elimination of the lengthy warm-up period has allowed the company to increase its productivity, a direct result of using the 1632 GOLD.

The 1632 GOLD comes standard with a GE Fanuc 18TB control that permits extremely close-tolerance grinding. Servo drives and glass scales assure accuracy and repeatability, while the CNC system allows programmable, simultaneous axes movement. The OD/ID grinder can handle parts up to 16" in diameter and up to 32" in length, with options for larger parts available. With little or no setup, it can automatically grind contours, tapers, chamfers, radii, shoulders, and straight diameters in one continuous operation.

As impressive as the Model 1632 GOLD is, Weldon's relationship with Precision Products demonstrates that Weldon has become more than a manufacturer of high-quality CNC cylindrical grinders. It's become a provider of solutions to the metalworking industry. Precision Products has every intention of tapping its capabilities for years to come.

"If we were to stop right now, we could continue doing what we're doing with our present grinders but the world would keep marching on," observes Rawls. "We've got to keep going and maintain that relationship with Weldon. They have built the machines that fulfill our dreams."

Buckley Owens Machinery Corp. 6416 Fly Road | East Syracuse, New York 13057 Telephone 315.432.0708 Fax 315.432.0736 Email: info@buckleyowens.com