Computers Replace the Machinist
The master machinist, a skilled operator of lathes and milling machines, a technician whose craft was perfected over years of intense apprenticeship, is a dying breed.
Now, the complex machines that keep manufacturers manufacturing can be run by “someone off the streets with just two days’ training,” according to Paul Manning, a representative of a Japanese firm that makes the new generation of numerically controlled machine tools.
The master machinist is being replaced by the computer.
It takes only a quick walk through the annual Orange County Manufacturing and Metalworking Conference and Exposition at the Anaheim Convention Center to see how heavy manufacturing has changed.
Programmed Machines
Dwarfing the engineers standing beside them, huge $100,000 pieces of machinery like the Hitachi Seiki Hitec Turn-25S or the VM 490 Okada Mill stolidly line the aisles, their computer control screens glowing with three-dimensional renderings of the cut the machine is programmed to make.
More than 80% of the show’s 79 exhibitors are from Orange County. But no county company actually makes heavy machinery. In keeping with the county’s service industry profile, most are distributors or dealers rather than builders of the showcased machinery.
One county-based firm that puts together machines is Matco Machine Tool Co. of Stanton. But like most American machinery companies, Matco doesn’t build its machinery from the ground up. Instead, it buys prefabricated frames and other parts from Japanese companies and then fits them with computer controls and motorized drive units manufactured by Allen-Bradley Co. of Milwaukee--a subsidiary of Rockwell International.
Underscoring the importance of computerized controls in today’s highly competitive heavy machinery market is the fact that only one of the OrCal exhibitors--Enco Manufacturing Co.--offers manually controlled lathes, presses and mills exclusively.
Kevin Armour, a sales representative in the Cerritos office of the Chicago-based company, said Enco’s tools and machines were for use in a “mom-and-pop type shop.” What Enco has in common with the other exhibitors, Armour said, is that its equipment is mostly built overseas.
EDM Systems Inc. is a Buena Park-based dealer specializing in several Japanese lines of machinery including Okada and ELOX. Both machines, equipped with Computer Numerical Control systems--called CNCs--looked as though they would be more at home on the flight deck of a 21st-Century star cruiser winging between the galaxies than in an Orange County factory banging out stamp dies. The $70,000 ELOX can be programmed--manually or through another computer--to create something as intricate as a two-inch, anatomically perfect sheet metal mermaid or as bulky as an aluminium extrusion stamp die, said EDM service manager Rick Sykes.
For companies interested in automating their factories more cheaply, Anilam Electronics of Miami, Fla., says it can retrofit older, manual machines with computer controls.
Focal Point of Exhibit
The smartly polished chrome and bright white 1947 Bridgeport mill that is the focal point of Anilam’s exhibit looked like a curious hybrid with a modern Anilam control system fused to one side. Gary Sladek, Western regional manager for Anilam’s Anaheim office, said older manual mills like the Bridgeport can be automated for $15,000.
Despite the impressive displays, the conference, jointly sponsored by the American Society for Metals and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, is designed to educate local businesses on new technologies rather than to help dealers and distributors sell more machines, according to John Sonego, manager of the show.
“Technology changes,” Sonego said. “Companies are introducing new product lines, and manufacturers need to keep up and see what’s available on the market.”
Sonego estimates attendance at the three-day exposition, which runs through Friday, will attract 4,000 people--the majority from Orange County--which is approximately the same attendance as at last year’s show. Admission is $5 for members of the associations sponsoring the show and $10 for non-members.
