Machining Case Studies

Rugo Machine Shop Services has a long track record of finding innovative solutions to customers’ machining needs. These case studies show results under demanding conditions for tolerances, costs, and delivery timelines.

Design for Manufacturability

Project Overview: A global industrial company contracted with Rugo Machine Shop Services to make hundreds of thousands of valve bodies and fittings each year.

The Challenge: Work with our customer’s engineering team to redesign existing valve bodies and fittings to improve quality and reduce cost. Their prior product design had leak issues and needed to be redesigned to pass UL testing. There was also a target for a 10% cost reduction in order to maintain competitive market pricing.

The RMSS Solution: Our engineering team reviewed the drawings and CAD models and then attended testing at the customer’s facility where they consulted with the engineering team. In the end, we identified a feature on the part that when removed, resolved the leaking problem. This allowed the part to pass the UL test that was required to bring the product to market. RMSS reduced the cost to manufacture the parts by reducing machining time.

Solving Complex Challenges

Project Overview: A leading-edge provider of flow control products to the semiconductor industry was looking for a precision machine shop with Swiss-machining capability to manufacture a new fitting with tight tolerances and short target-machining cycle time to control costs.

The Challenge: Develop a global supply chain capable of meeting demand for 5 million estimated annual usage (EAU) for a new fitting, made of 316L stainless steel, .285″ in diameter, with a .015 +/- .001 full-radius groove at a 60 degree angle around the outside diameter of the part. In addition to the tight tolerances, the customer had a target-machining cycle time of 1.5 minutes per part to hit target cost requirements. There were substantial requirements for special handling and specific coolant to be used during machining.

The RMSS Solution: We did extensive internal R&D to develop a custom tooling and a stable machining process. We tested multiple tools and machining processes, measuring and monitoring the results from all process changes, to develop the most stable and efficient manufacturing process. Our team was in regular communication with the customer to keep them informed of all milestones during the development process.

Innovative Thinking & Investments

Project Overview: A market leader in fire suppression technology for aerospace and defense applications was looking for a machine shop with aerospace experience that was willing to invest in new capacity to help them meet their growth targets.

The Challenge:  This commercial provider of fire suppression technology needed a supply chain partner that could meet strict delivery dates and contractual requirements from the Department of Defense.

The RMSS Solution: We invested in a new CNC machine to expand our capacity to meet our customers’ requirements. We added the latest in machining technology: a twin spindle, three turret, fully automated mill turn machine capable of lights out production 24-7. It included Siemens control with a virtual machine.

Prior to running the parts on the new CNC machine, we were making the parts on other CNC equipment. This strategic investment in new machinery allowed us to reduce the cycle time for all of the machined components in the assembly by at least 50%. This resulted in on-time delivery of all components at the increased quantity levels to meet the DOD’s contractual requirements.

An Aerospace Reshoring Initiative

Project Overview: A leading integrated solutions provider in the Aerospace market needed to reshore the manufacturing of components and control costs.

The Challenge: Changing international trade and market conditions resulted in the need to reshore production to an Arizona aerospace machine shop, the manufacturing of several product families of aerospace components.

The RMSS Solution: We reviewed project quality, delivery requirements and target pricing with our customer. We were able to hit the customer’s target prices for the reshoring initiative because our investments in automation allow us to produce complete parts in a single operation, with advanced technology for quick changeover between jobs. In the first 3 months of the project we delivered 5000 components on time, with an OTIF (on time in full) performance of 90%.

Invest in Technology to Meet Customer Cost Requirements

Project Overview: A leading designer and manufacturer of technology products needed a CNC machine shop to partner with them to bring to market a new design solution for an existing product that offered a significant cost savings.

The Challenge:  This customer required the redesign of an existing product for in-circuit debugging to improve product functionality and reduce cost.  We were tasked with machining the outer housing for the product out of 6061 aluminum and providing a 25% cost reduction over the current version.  The customer needed to contract with a supplier for delivery of 20,000 housings in the first year.

The RMSS Solution: We consulted with our customer’s purchasing and engineering teams to thoroughly understand quality, cost and delivery requirements. We worked with our raw material suppliers to produce a mill run of custom tubing, cut to size. We engineered a machining process that utilized our UR10 Universal Robot to load and unload the slugs from our DMG Mori NLX2500SY mill/turn center. By automating the process, we were able to meet our customers cost reduction targets. We completed the contract on time without any quality issues from the customer.

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