| Drake Manufacturing Services Co. | Phone:
330-847-7291 |
|
| www.drakemfg.com | E-mail: info@drakemfg.com |
|
A note from the President… |
|
|
Well, as seems to be the case too often the last few years, I again find myself sitting in an airport waiting for the last flight of a 20-hour journey back from China. Why is it that after 10 days of schlepping around with 1.2 billion others; getting bumped and mashed in what passes for a queue there; sweating in all-day negotiation in a 34° (90°F) office; and excluding all ice and fresh foods from your diet, it is the final two hours in Chicago or Dulles or whatever airport of entry you end up in is the most annoying? I now really do understand the saying about the horse smelling the barn. What was my point? Oh yeah, how refreshing it was to be in China again. Those folks seem to get it. Maybe the leaders are communists, but again and again I leave China with the firm belief that the people are capitalists. They have a taste for what actually producing something can do for one’s soul (and wealth for that matter) and they want more of it. They are all trying to grow the pie—not fight over last year's smaller pie. On the ground in China, I continue to have the sense that Deng's answer to the question about communism versus capitalist "black cat; white cat, as long as it catches mice…" is the mantra of the educated and working class folks. They have tasted "mice" and want more and are willing to take risks, work hard, crack a book, and actually reason in their efforts to be successful. So what, you ask? This observation about the Chinese particularly struck me this trip because of the recent events in the USA—TRILLION dollar deficits ($1,000,000,000,000) as far as the eye can see, federal borrowing of almost $5 billion a DAY, the debt ceiling showdown, public union contracts run amok, news stories about the thousands of waivers already granted from Obamacare, the EPA regulating our exhales (CO2) as a pollutant, and now the potential downgrading of the credit of the USA by S&P (who by the way, rated bundled tranches of C&D tranches of sub-prime mortgage-backed-securities AAA only 3 years ago). It sure seems to me as if we are no longer baking pies but are fighting over the ones baked by prior generations.
|
Many of our political "leaders" are still preaching that we can have it all. Gang, the party is over. This country is bankrupt—whether the actual end comes from hyperinflation or by straight out default does not much matter by my lights. We are doomed so long as we keep deluding ourselves. "No" you say, "we have always pushed through these crises before." The Ryan Plan will be merged with the Gang of Six's plan and with a few insertions from the Deficit Commission’s report, and the Grand Bargain will be enacted and resolve the fiscal crisis. But remember, even the "Draconian" Ryan plan adds $7 trillion in new debt. What will not be resolved, however, is the grand delusion that there is a free lunch. That one's "need" creates rights to others' production. That there will always be someone else’s money to confiscate and redistribute. But, as Greece, Ireland, and the other enlightened social democracies are discovering, you eventually run out of other people’s money. Well, we in the USA are about out of it. What to do? Ignore it. Put your head down. Turn off the TV. Cancel your RSS news feeds. Ignore the blogs. Unsubscribe from your podcasts. Instead, go visit your customers. Go visit some new prospects. Go to a developing country and learn a new market. Go to a local research university and talk to the commercialization office. Redouble your efforts to finish that new product. Get out and produce. Make something happen. That is what we have been doing here at Drake. We realized that we cannot control the rest of the world—all we can do is listen to our customers—to all of you—and compete to continue to strive to deliver the best "thread" making technology in the world. —Jim Vosmik
|
Drake Out in the World Look for us at Gear Expo in Cincinnati, Ohio November 1-3. We will be exhibiting with our new North American gear industry representative, Koepfer America. See below for details.
|
Recent Orders and Shipments Shipments…recent shipments include multiple sets of automated GS:TI-LM and VTM (Vertical Thread Mill) machines for internal return ball nuts as well as conventional GS:TI machines—all for ball nut assembly style rack and pinion electronic power steering component manufacturers. We also continue to ship worm grinders for column steer EPS systems. The miniature tap and gage manufacturing market has also been particularly strong with multiple machine shipments of the GS:TEM-LM—mostly for grinding M3 and smaller forming taps for the booming Asian electronics market. We have also shipped several automated TEMs for grinding small thread gages. Please keep buying those smart phones, iPads, and other pocket computing devices—they all use tiny fasteners that require threaded holes and our machines make the tools that thread and gage the holes! Whoever thought a machine tool manufacturer would be excited about a consumer electronics market? In the linear actuation market, we recently shipped a GS:TI-LM Robot Load machine for automated grinding of ball nut threads for M14 and smaller nuts. This machine auto loads small ball nut blanks from pallets to a hydraulic compression chuck, a probe finds the pre-cut threads (only 0.25mm deep), aligns the grinding wheel in the pre-cut threads, and finish grinds the part. We are also completing a conventional, remanufactured 2M ball screw grinder with on-board part inspection. The order book is strong and growing with multiple tap machines (TEMs, LM-200s, and 636s), EPS machines, large diameter (650mm) gage grinders for API thread gages, ball nut grinders, and other, general purpose thread grinders for the world markets. We continue to be very successful in the developing markets of Eastern Europe, China and India and expect our first order from Brazil this week. The North American market is picking up and despite the setback to Japan’s recovery from the earthquake and tsunami, we continue to see orders from Japan. In the remanufacturing and CNC retrofitting market, we are remanufacturing and CNC retrofitting a 1.8M worm wheel hobber to keep up with the new controls (CS:R—Control System: Renewal) and dressers we installed on this customer's Holroyd and Mitsui Seiki large diameter worm grinders over the last year. For another customer, after two successful CS:Rs to their Mitsui Seiki rotor grinders, we are re-engineering a 2M thread grinder for rotor pump grinding to help create new capacity to allow us to remanufacture their remaining rotor grinders. We also continue to refurbish, re-control (CS:R) and fully retrofit original Drake machines from the 1980s and 1990s for existing customers. Is your 0M controlled machine ready for a new brain? How about a preventative maintenance and machine assessment visit from our builders?
|
Drake GS:TEM-LM with Robot Load
Drake GS:TI-LM with Robot Load
Drake GS:TI-LM with Robot
|
Developments for You… Tap Grinding Update…Stig and his R&D team continue to develop grinding technology for the small tap and gage market (<M10) and have recently ground M0.5 x 0.125 forming taps (that is 0.020" diameter x 0.005" pitch) on the TEM. While the smallest production tap we have seen is actually M0.8 x 0.25, we expect the demand for even smaller taps to continue as devices get smaller and smaller. As you can imagine, work holding, measuring, and inspecting these tiny tools is a challenge! Manual Helix LM and Power Helix TEM Grinders—In response to our high production customers, we have developed single purpose versions of our internal and external LM thread grinders. For installations where the machine is likely to only grind a single part over its life, we have eliminated the A-axis gear box and its power helix function. The wheel helix is manually set and clamped in place resulting in a lower cost machine with higher stiffness suitable for high production environments where seconds count. On the other end of the market, for small lot producers, we have introduced a power helix version of the GS:TEM that allows for CNC helix positioning and automatic clamping for faster change overs from part to part. Motorized Spindles and Internal Balancers—In final development and testing are integral motor spindles for the TEM and LM grinders now available with internal automatic wheel balancers. As many of you know, due to space and interference constraints, the TEM and the LM machines present difficulties in mounting and maintaining automatic balancers. Well, after a joint development effort with our spindle suppliers, we now have in-the-spindle-nose automatic balancers available for both the LM200 and the TEM that allow either machine to be configured with both a motorized spindle (no belt drive) and an automatic balancer.
|
Yes, there are actually threads on that!
Drake GS:TEM-LM with Manual Helix
|
Current Lead Times |
Despite a significant increase in staff, assembly space, and supplier relationships, new order volume flow continues to outpace our capacity. Accordingly, our lead time to a runoff at Drake is currently 13-15 months. At this writing, our next open runoff slot is in September 2012. While we continue to hire engineers and builders, we will not jeopardize our machine quality by growing too fast. Please understand. In recognition of our long lead time, we are making available a special ordering procedure where you can take an option on a runoff slot for 5% of the estimated order value. Once we receive the deposit, we will hold the slot until we can fully define the machine and application. Once the formal order is defined (not later than 8 months prior to the runoff slot), you would then pay the remaining down payment and we would begin building. If you decide not to finalize the order, we will attempt to fill the slot—if we can, we will refund your option fee. Please contact Sales (info@drakemfg.com) for a quote or use the RFP form available at www.drakemfg.com.
|
Drake Lives its Philosophy One of the tenets of our philosophy is that "if you cannot make money with our standard machines, we will buy it back and sell it to someone who can." This happened recently. A new customer was struggling to make money with its new LM and, after 18 months, approached us to help them dispose of the machine. True to our philosophy, we negotiated a fair price and bought back the machine. The machine was brought back to Drake and cleaned, tested, axes alignments verified, and will be runoff by its new owner next week. We stand behind what we make—good machines—and are confident that our machines are productive and cost effective.
|
|
Drake Rearranges its North American Sales Organization In response to the ever-changing market and global economy, Drake has rearranged its sales organization in North America. We have formally joined with Koepfer America LLC to represent us in the North American gear market (all members of AGMA). And, we have partnered with DMARK Corporation to represent our entire product line in southern California. Both organizations are well respected in the machine tool industry and bring the technical and product knowledge that customers have come to expect from Drake, providing application solutions for continued growth.
|
DRAKE MANUFACTURING |
|
|
|
Drake Gear Manufacturing Systems only Koepfer America, LLC (847) 931-4121 Phone
|
Entire Drake product line Territory—Southern California counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. DMARK Corporation
|
