To survive in the changing economic landscape of U.S. manufacturing, many job shops have been forced to follow an unofficial mantra of the Marine Corps – improvise, adapt, overcome. Lindquist Machine Corp., with the help of a MAG FT 3500 horizontal boring mill, has done just that – shifting its focus to producing a variety of large, specialized parts for the nuclear energy market, and taking on new business in wind energy. Lindquist uses the FT 3500’s special-geared AC digital drives to maintain the high torque and stiffness needed to cut the 400 stainless steel required for nuclear energy parts, and its 20mpm (787ipm) rapid traverse rates and rotary table option to cut cycle times. The versatility of the FT 3500, with a traveling column design that allows virtually unlimited X-axis travel for processing large and long workpieces, or multiple batch parts, has also allowed Lindquist to increase work in wind energy, producing gear boxes, pitch linkage assemblies, and main shafts.

Lindquist is a 63-year-old company providing turnkey, full-service custom machine building services for the automation, converting, food processing, packaging, paper, pharmaceutical, plastics, printing, and machine tool industries. The company looked to secure work in alternative energy when the U.S. economy slowed at the end of 2008. “We started doing some wind energy work and we got into nuclear energy because it is not solely driven by U.S. economic conditions,” says Mark Kaiser, president and COO of Lindquist. Nuclear power supplies approximately 80% of the electricity in France, while the United States, Japan, and France produce 57% of the world’s nuclear energy. “Now we are heavy into the nuclear work and we are adding work in wind energy as well,” Kaiser explains. Lindquist got its first nuclear part order in January 2009 and it shipped last summer.

Lindquist ordered its FT3500 with a 60-tool magazine.The Approach
Prior to acquiring the FT 3500, Lindquist was using an older model horizontal boring machine to produce the large nuclear energy parts and, while it was not exactly improvising, Vice President of Lean Manufacturing Ernie Remondini knew that if Lindquist was going to continue to expand its nuclear work, it would need to upgrade its existing machinery. “We realized we needed to enhance our technology and capability, so we developed our wish list and began our search,” Remondini states. The work called for a faster, more accurate machine, with minimum X travel of 9m (30ft) and 3m (10ft) of Y travel. “We narrowed the field to three candidates and selected the MAG machine because it exceeded all the criteria and had higher torque, higher feedrates, and a larger tool magazine. It was also the only machine of the three made here in the United States, and we liked the proximity of the MAG plant in Fond du Lac, WI.”

MAG takes a modular approach to machine building, allowing customers to configure an HBM specifically to their needs for maximized productivity. Two available platforms – the floor type FT and the ram-style FTR – can be fitted with a choice of travels, headstocks, spindle diameters and power, controls, coolant systems, workholding, and tool magazines. Lindquist ordered its FT 3500 with 10m (32.8ft) X axis, 3.1m (10.2ft) Y axis, 1,250mm (49.1") Z travel, a 60-tool magazine, and a live spindle with contouring head.

Machine versatility was also an important factor in Lindquist’s decision to purchase the FT 3500, and the drilling, tapping, and boring capabilities of the MAG HBM allows Lindquist to adapt to the needs of its customers. “We are a unique shop in that we will machine, fabricate, weld, paint, and assemble complete machines and sub-assemblies,” Kaiser states. “We are not a production shop and many of the parts we make are small batch or one-off, so we need to have the flexibility to machine whatever parts our customers need.”


Getting Qualified
To produce the parts for nuclear energy facilities, Lindquist had to go through the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) nuclear accreditation process known as N-stamp. This internationally-recognized qualification indicates the shop is producing commercial nuclear-grade components in accordance with the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Nuclear Codes and Standards. In addition to meeting the requirements for producing nuclear energy parts, Lindquist is ISO-9001:2008 certified.

The parts Lindquist produces for nuclear energy include frames, large castings, and fabricated bases that are more than 9m (30ft) long, 4.3m (14ft) tall, and weigh more than 13.6t (15 tons). Tolerances for these parts are ±0.0008" over 100". The FT 3500 has exceptional rigidity and durability due to the cross-ribbed construction, the wide way spreads on the column and runway, and the steel runway fabrication. These features add structural integrity to resist deflection and minimize vibrations, providing a rigid cutting platform and allowing for heavy metal removal while maintaining positioning accuracies of 0.0150mm (0.0006") and repeatability of 0.0080mm (0.0003").

“The accuracy of the FT 3500 is also helping us to get more wind energy work,” Remondini says. “The previous machine could not hold the required tolerances and the new machine is much faster. We have doubled our capacity with the MAG machine.”

In a time when many shops are struggling, the investment Lindquist made in the FT 3500 has allowed it to expand services and the industries it serves, overcoming the economic downturn and actually increasing business. “Our order backlog is the highest it has been in three years,” Kaiser concludes.

MAG AMERICAS
Erlanger, KY
mag-ias.com

Lindquist Machine Corp.
Green Bay, WI
lmc-corp.com