Franko6
Vendor , w/Business number
It's been a long time coming, but we got it. The accuracy and repeatability of our cylinder head porting is not only spot-on to our design, port-to-port, but the bottleneck in the business has always been the time and effort it takes to hand port a cylinder head. On average, we spend 8 1/2 hours per cylinder head to complete the job. The workmanship does not suffer just because it is a job done by hand, but the advantage is with CNC equipment, we have tripled our production and are able to 'let the machine do all the work'.
If you have ever seen a 5-axis cylinder head porting machine at work, it will make you dizzy with the motion to get to every point and access. It will make you even dizzier when you see the price tag. A Centroid 5-axis machine will start around $250,000.
Of course, being a true-blue blooded VW guy, THAT isn't going to happen. We made the purchase of a Hurco KMP3 machine, gutted the old motherboard and screens, installed a 4-axis board, run against a software program from one of the wizards I may have mentioned before, Tom Rathbun, of Grand Rapids, MI. It was actually a team effort of Tom, Gordy Peterson and my buddy Randy Palleson, while I was relegated to the simpler mechanical tasks, I mostly stood back and let the brain trust work. They are all remarkable people.
Eventually, we may apply the fourth axis, but 95% of the porting is able to be accomplished within 3 axes. Watching the machine at work is like watching paint dry. It does it's work slowly and accurately. Our three-position holding jig carries three cylinder heads, which rotate positions; A, B and C. It's a three hour process from each station.
We have some time-lapse photography coming soon. It turns a 3:10 hr job into a 22 second video. You can get the idea...
Because of the comparative speed and self-sufficiency of the machine to produce with only minimal involvement, we can spend more time on the balance of duties required of us. We will be able to increase overall production.
Our first CNC machine is a dedicated Newen Seat and Valve machine, where the Hurco CNC, we will be expanding into other products and processes that are production based; the world that CNC is a wonder at.
There are just a few bugs to get out and we need to tweak speeds and roughness average. Then, we will be offering the digital porting service as a group buy, discounted with complete cylinder head or engine builds.
We were already competitive. Now we can turn out volume.
If you have ever seen a 5-axis cylinder head porting machine at work, it will make you dizzy with the motion to get to every point and access. It will make you even dizzier when you see the price tag. A Centroid 5-axis machine will start around $250,000.
Of course, being a true-blue blooded VW guy, THAT isn't going to happen. We made the purchase of a Hurco KMP3 machine, gutted the old motherboard and screens, installed a 4-axis board, run against a software program from one of the wizards I may have mentioned before, Tom Rathbun, of Grand Rapids, MI. It was actually a team effort of Tom, Gordy Peterson and my buddy Randy Palleson, while I was relegated to the simpler mechanical tasks, I mostly stood back and let the brain trust work. They are all remarkable people.
Eventually, we may apply the fourth axis, but 95% of the porting is able to be accomplished within 3 axes. Watching the machine at work is like watching paint dry. It does it's work slowly and accurately. Our three-position holding jig carries three cylinder heads, which rotate positions; A, B and C. It's a three hour process from each station.
We have some time-lapse photography coming soon. It turns a 3:10 hr job into a 22 second video. You can get the idea...
Because of the comparative speed and self-sufficiency of the machine to produce with only minimal involvement, we can spend more time on the balance of duties required of us. We will be able to increase overall production.
Our first CNC machine is a dedicated Newen Seat and Valve machine, where the Hurco CNC, we will be expanding into other products and processes that are production based; the world that CNC is a wonder at.
There are just a few bugs to get out and we need to tweak speeds and roughness average. Then, we will be offering the digital porting service as a group buy, discounted with complete cylinder head or engine builds.
We were already competitive. Now we can turn out volume.
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