Forest City Gear Purchases New Takisawa Lathe...Seeing Double!
Twin-spindle, twin-turret turning center with twin CNC control has 16-pallet capacity and boasts 27-second cycle time in continuous mode
Roscoe, IL-Forest City Gear has purchased a Takisawa TT-200G, a fully-automated turning center with twin-spindle, twin-turret and twin-CNC operation, for its in-house blanking department. By the acquisition of this machine, according to a company spokesman, the production in the blanking department has radically improved, as the machine combines full automation with twin-sided, simultaneous machining.
With a 16-pallet capacity, this Takisawa 8" chuck type machine boasts a feed rate of 8m/min and features a standard spindle and turret plus a second C-axis spindle and turret with milling function. In addition, a bar loader, workpiece stacker, turnover unit, chip conveyor, air blower, tabulating counter and other equipment are onboard for fully automatic mode operation of the machine.
As a strictly custom gearmaker, Forest City Gear made the decision recently to develop an in-house blanking department, thereby improving its turnaround time on most jobs, according to company president, Wendy Young. "We were reliant on a number of outside suppliers and, while our volume overall is quite substantial, we were often slow to receive some small, project-specific blanks for production. Many of our jobs are short-run, highly specialized precision gears and that means we place a premium on being very efficient in our time-to-first-prototype. The Takisawa is already making a big impact on our blanking operation here."
Tommy Kalt, who runs the blanking department at Forest City Gear, concurs. "We're achieving a 27-second cycle of continuous turning and the fully automatic mode means a big boost in production for our department. Because we do so many jobs that require relatively few blanks, our overall speed was hampered, due to excessive downtime for set-ups. That situation is diminished to a great degree with the Takisawa machine. Having this capability allows us to reduce our lot sizes on high volume blanket orders and increases our ability to prototype."
This sale was made for Takisawa by Brad Fischbach of Yamazen.
Forest City Gear is a world-class supplier of high-precision gears for demanding applications in the aircraft, aerospace, defense, instrument, medical, racing (boat and auto), high-end sporting goods and other markets. The company sells its products worldwide, including to China.
Forest City Gear was founded in 1955 by Stetler and Evelyn Young, parents of the current CEO, Fred Young, and is considered among the premier gearmakers in the world.
For more information, please contact:
FOREST CITY GEAR CO., INC.
11715 Main Street
Roscoe, IL 61073-0080
Phone: 815-623-2168
Fax: 815-623-6620
Web: www.forestcitygear.com
Email: wyoung@forestcitygear.com
Attention: Wendy Young, President
PR agency contact for Forest City Gear:
Tim Daro
Bernard & Company
847-934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
