Ohio job shop replaces its cold saws with an automatic horizontal band saw.
Above: Garrick Ginter, left, shop supervisor, and Darian Ginter, special project and tooling manager, with United Tool’s HBE-261A Dynamic automatic horizontal band saw from Behringer.
December 2022- Ohio job shop replaces its cold saws with an automatic horizontal band saw.
Times change and part manufacturers must adapt to keep the lights on. That can require investing in new machining equipment. When United Tool & Machine Inc. transitioned from high production to more of a job shop with a high-mix, low-volume environment, the manufacturer needed a new and different type of saw, says Darian Ginter, special project and tooling manager.
He adds that changes at United’s customers, such as ones that serve the military and have been the company’s primary focus since the 1970s, became vertically integrated and tried to do everything in house. Lakeview, Ohio-based United Tool, which employs 16 people at its 44,000-sq.-ft. facility, sought additional work to keep growing and began generating more business from agricultural, transportation, automation and material handling industries.
The manufacturer has 13 CNC machines, mainly lathes and mills, but was seeing a growth in saw work, Ginter says. United has cold saws, but those were mostly dedicated to producing a specific part: a parallelogram or trapezoid shaped nut. “Those cold saws were great for that being that they had to be cut at angles because the head oscillates.”
However, cold saws are limited to cutting only one or two bars at a time, he explains. “We couldn’t bundle cut anything. So, when we started picking up some strictly saw work, that’s when we started looking for more of a band saw with a larger work area [so] we can start bundle cutting a lot more rapidly.”
In addition, cold saws have other issues that motivated United Tool to research band saws, says Garrick Ginter, the company’s shop supervisor and Darian’s brother. For example, at one point when he tried cutting a hexagon, the blade on the cold saw clogged up.
STRIKING WHILE THE IRON’S HOT
The search immediately led to Behringer Saws Inc. in Morgantown, Pennsylvania. When asked if he looked at saws from other machine tool builders, Darian Ginter replies, “To be honest, no.”
When it came to acquiring the saw, time was of the essence because the cold sawing operation had a two- to three-month backlog, he says.
Because Behringer had one for delivery in about a month, United Tool chose the HBE-261A Dynamic automatic horizontal band saw.
“We pretty much just needed something pronto, and the price was perfect on this one,” he says.
A day after Behringer delivered the machine in July, a technician arrived to set up and level the saw and provide full training support. “He stayed there with me for two days to make sure I was fluent enough with the machine. He wouldn’t leave unless I was comfortable,” Garrick Ginter recalls.
Once the saw was up and running, United Tool quickly reduced its sawing backlog to about two weeks, Darian Ginter notes. “We’re pretty impressed with how rapid our turnaround time became with the sawing.”
A quick turnaround proves beneficial as United Tool diversifies and grows the job shop side of its business. “It could be a onetime job we’ll never see again comes in and we can rapidly cut it,” he says, “and get it right back out in a timely manner to satisfy the customer’s needs.”
One option Garrick Ginter says is a “huge benefit” is the vertical clamp, or bundle clamping device. “You’re talking about cutting one part at a time versus having the opportunity to cut, depending on the bar size, six, 12, 24 at a time. It really changed the way we look at sawing.”
The combination of a stable, low-vibration saw frame and the linear guide system in portal design ensure effective cutting and long service life, Behringer reports. Once the machine was running, United Tool quickly reduced its two- to three-month backlog to about two weeks.
The band saw is suitable for cutting profiles and tubes to solid material, and United Tool saws an assortment of workpieces with it, such as 2-inch hexagon bar stock and 3¼-inch tubing, with the largest being 17 inches, Garrick Ginter adds. The types of workpiece materials range from aluminum to stainless steel grades 304 and 321, with the shop even sawing stacks of wood to make fixturing clamps that prevent parts from being marred.
The typical tolerance for sawed parts is ±0.005 inch, he says. “I think it’s capable of three thousandths.”
EASE OF USE
The Behringer band saw features an automatic feeding gripper that pushes material forward to cut an accurate length. Darian notes that Garrick sets up the saw for an operator to run but, one time, Garrick was on leave and Darian needed to determine a way to saw some end pieces to produce the quantities needed to fulfill an order. Based on the program, the saw wouldn’t push the final part into the jaws to run it because the load arm has nothing to hold onto, so it senses that it’s out of material.
“I, as someone who has never touched buttons on a CNC machine before in my life, was able to go out there and set up the arm as a positive stop to where it doesn’t move,” Darian Ginter says. “I load the machine from the front, manually clamp it and then I could cut my finished piece.”
Garrick Ginter says the leftover pieces of metal can still be turned into good parts, but the machine doesn’t know that because it does only what it’s told.
Another helpful feature is the electrically driven chip brush, according to Garrick Ginter. Coolant keeps heat from building up in the workpiece material, but the chip brush more effectively removes shavings from the blade. “That is a very nice way to keep the saw blade from wearing down quicker than without having one.”
Behringer reports that the saw teeth are protected by the brush’s special engagement angle.
To enhance its ease of operation, the band saw has an intuitive BT65 touch control, which is essentially picture-driven, according to Darian Ginter. “I guess the toughest part is understanding what the pictures mean and what code goes with a picture. Other than that, it is pretty easy.”
A rear view of the HBE-261A Dynamic automatic horizontal band saw.
United Tool runs 10-hour shifts four days a week and overtime on Fridays periodically. The band saw could easily run for 40 or more hours a week, but Darian Ginter says the machine recently sat idle for a week. “We went from having a three-month backlog to being caught up in about three weeks. “You almost can’t find work fast enough to keep it busy.”
United Tool & Machine still has two cold saws, Garrick Ginter says, “but I haven’t turned them on because the Behringer has replaced them.”
Behringer Saws President Richard Klipp states, “The HBE-261A is the smallest automatic machine in our offering but is loaded with the same features and benefits of our larger machines. We understand that the excellent performance of a 12-inch saw at United Tool & Machine is just as important to them as a 60-inch machine at one of our steel manufacturing customers. They deserve the same quality and attention as the big guys.” -MM
