You have a CNC... Why on earth would you still need a FlexArm?
Every tradeshow, every sales call, every Tom, Dick, and Harry we've talked to, has a CNC machine, and thinks of the FlexArm as an unnecessary expense...
Let me ask you this. Is faster production "unnecessary"? Do you enjoy spending 10x more on taps then you should be? How about those delightful bottlenecks your dealing with now... waiting for the CNC to finish a run?
CNC machines are awesome, the are great for drilling holes.... but not for tapping. When drilling the spindle moves continuously.... down the hole, and back out again... the spindle never stops moving and production continues. When tapping a hole, the spindle slows down, taps to depth, comes to a complete stop, and reverses back out of the hole.
If your tapping multiple holes on decent sized run, each hole slows down production. Not to mention, the added time for tool changes.
The FlexArm Tapping arm eliminates that drag by taking the tapping operation off of the CNC, and moving each part through the process quicker.
For example. Recently we had to run 2000 parts, lets call it Part A. Part A requires 2 different sized holes, on two sides of the part.
Lets imagine we are machining this part on a CNC..
The process would look like this:
Drill two 1/4" holes,
change tooling,
tap two 1/4" holes,
rotate the part,
refixture the part
Drill three 1/4" holes
change tooling
Tap three 1/4" holes.
Taking that exact same part, and moving the process to a FlexArm Tapping arm, we can eliminate half of the process.
Drill two 1/4" holes
rotate the part,
refixture the part
Drill three 1/4" holes
*tap the holes offline with the FlexArm Tapping Arm while the CNC continues to machine other parts.
By tapping offline, we can eliminate 15 seconds of machine time per part, (assuming your machine allows for multiple parts to be fixtured at once). For a run of 2000 parts and 10,000 holes, we eliminate 8.5 HOURS OF MACHINE TIME. That is an entire workday added to production with a single run.
Not to mention the tooling savings. At the most, a FlexArm might break 1 tap in every 3000 holes... verses a CNC's average of breaking a tap after only 300 holes. A FlexArm pays for itself.
(<- See Instagram Review)
The Tapping Arm
1) Eliminated the bottleneck in our shop
2) Reduced machine time by 8.5 HOURS
3) Dramatically reduced tooling costs
4) Eliminates extra tool changes and setup's from the CNC Machine
5) Keeps the CNC operator occupies while the machine is running (instead of spending that time checking Facebook)
6) Eliminates unnecessary wear and tear on CNC spindles.
Can you afford not to have one?
