www.martonline.in 26 May 2014 www.martonline.in 27 May 2014 www.martonline.

in 26 March 2014
FI NE MACHI NI NG
The Journey of Fine Machining
Machining of Metals has always been a challenging task and when dealing with Metal Injection Molded (MIM) parts, it has
become tougher. The machining process at Indo-MIM started with operations like drilling, tapping, surface grinding to fnish
features and tolerances; which were beyond the MIM tolerances. Due to unavailability, most of the prominent operations
like turning, drilling, reaming, tapping and surface grinding were being outsourced in the initial years of inception.
The major thrust for in-house
machining came from our
Founder and Chairman
Dr. Krishna Chivukula, who was
not satisfed with the parts
being ricocheting between
places and sub-suppliers. He
had foreseen the need to
start in-house machining to
instill customer confdence
particularly for the automotive
customers.
We established in-house
machining in 2009 and have so
far established many critical
operations including
CNC turning with close
tolerances of upto 6 microns
CNC Milling 3rd and 4th
Axis in machines with Pallet
changers
High production Single-
pass honing with one part
every 13 secs.
High production Profle
grinding at 15 secs. / part
having 7 micron tolerance
Multi-part Surface grinding
Lapping and Polishing to
achieve fatness of upto 2
microns.
ID Grinding with 6 micron
requirement
Against the general belief
that in-sourcing is more
expensive, we have been
so far successful in making
the supply chain leaner
and easier, with in-house
machining as it gives us
tremendous amount
of focused improvement
initiatives. We have also
crashed the lead time for
product delivery by as much
as 400 % in some cases. The
customer delight being the
icing on the cake.
The following advantages
are helping us to sustain our
machining process:
Right machine selection
We have engaged ourselves
in an active role in the process
of selecting the machines.
Our guiding factor for the
process has been the method
of maximizing the machine
running time. We opted for
VMSs equipped with pallet
changers to shorten the time
lost in loading and unloading
time. Further, we opted for
machines which were small,
compact, rigid and with low
torque spindles since we
remove very less material
and most of our parts are
smaller in size. Whenever
critical tolerances are to be
maintained within capability,
machines have been ftted with
probing systems for auto tool
ofset corrections.
Even for honing and grinding,
we have opted for for
machines with the facility of
parallel loading and unloading
of parts, while the operations
are carried out in other
stations.
Work Holding
Even though we use the
general chucking systems and
collet systems in our turning
centers, we have custom
built fxtures for specifc
parts. Having our own design
department doing both the
Swaminathan S B
swami.b@indo-mim.com
Honing machine
Milling Line
Multi part
part design and fxture design
has helped us decide the
optimum clamping systems
for highly challenging part
requirements. All our milling
and surface grinding fxtures
are multi part fxtures. Having
multi part fxtures not only
has helped in increasing the
productivity, but also have
given us the advantage of
full machine bed utilization
irrespective of the part size.
Most of the small batch
productions have multiple
parts / operations preset in
the machine bed thereby
practically zeroing the change
over time.
Cutting Tools
Though we get support from
diferent tooling manufacturers
and dealers, we work with the
suppliers to achieve the lowest
possible per piece rate. The
tool cost alone is not taken
into account but the advantage
of higher cutting parameters
and better material removal
rate is also being considered
to fnalise the optimal tool
source for any application.
We approach each application
with an open mind giving equal
opportunity be it established
players like Iscar, Sandivik,
Walter etc., or lowcost sources
in India who manufacture and
supply tools which are less
expensive.
Continuous Improvements
Our culture to work always
on continuous improvements
by conducting kaizen events,
identifcation of Improvement
projects and tracking them
have helped us complete
signifcant improvement
projects in optimizing the
usage of Man, Machine and
Methods.
Statistical Process Control
The usage of statistical process
control is another tool we have
successfully implemented to
establish robust and repeatable
processes. Statistics have come
handy in the study of tool wear
pattern and establishing auto
ofset corrections through
program macros. The macro
programs have reduced
the high variability caused
by operator interventions.
Processes where very close
tolerances needs to be
achieved have been established
in this way and we have derived
signifcant reductions in
product scrap levels.
Collaborative approach
As we believe that when
bright minds meet, ideas
spark out; we approach any
challenge with an open mind
and discuss them with machine
tool suppliers, tool suppliers
or work holding sources for
optimum solutions. This has
not only helped us to arrive to
the solutions, but also to get
them fast. There have been
instances where the outcome
of our discussions have become
standard options for the
machine tool manufacturer
later.
With the establishment of our
Investment casting facility at
Tirupathi, we have got into the
challenge of machining bigger
parts having more material
removal. The machining
of MIM parts have helped
us quickly establish highly
critical machining projects for
Investment casted parts. All
through our machining journey,
our primary objective has been
and will be lowoperating cost.
With our management willing
to invest on suitable machines
though expensive but
guarantees lower operating
cost in future; is the corner
stone for our rapid growth in
the machining process . With
starting from three machines
in 2009 to currently holding 60
machines in 2014 is a remarkable
achievement!
Having established sales ofces
across the world in addition to
having satisfed customers, has
opened newopportunities of
bigger and more challenging
machining projects. With
the strong fundamentals
established along with the past
learnings, we can confdently
say that we are well placed to
handle them and succeed.
The author Swaminathan S B
with rich industrial experience of
more than 25 years in forging and
machining felds have established
several high volume projects for
the automotive customers. He is
working with Bangalore based
Indo MIMTec Pvt Ltd as Deputy
General Manager Machining
projects and can be contacted at
swami.b@indo-mim.com
Pallet Changer
www.martonline.in 26 May 2014 www.martonline.in 27 May 2014