Enshu machines are built for long-term accuracy and efficiency, making them ideal for long-term production machining applications like those frequently received by B&B Products Inc. out of Franksville, WI. B&B has been in the precision CNC machining business for over 45 years, specializing in short to long term production runs of metals and plastics in a wide range of industries, from automotive, railroad and military to printing, food and hydraulics. They purchased their Enshu GE480H Horizontal Machining Center over three years ago, and it hasn’t missed a beat since.
Before investing in their Enshu, B&B had used vertical machining centers from multiple other brands for machining precision hydraulic components. As a permanent production run, they needed a higher capacity machine to improve cycle times to continue to meet their customer’s needs. In order to achieve faster cycle times, they were looking to transition to a horizontal machining center, so they went out for bid.
After consulting with the inside technical team at Enshu, B&B took their program on a test run with the GE480H. It not only beat the cycle times of all competing HMC vendors, but side-by-side, the rapid traverse rate of 3,543 IPM as well as the 1.2 second tool-tool and 3.2 second chip-chip time of the GE480H stood out above the rest.
The easy-to-use FANUC control, roller guide ways, and overall rigidity of the machine helped to round out the successful test. Impressed with the outcome, B&B was sold on the GE480H horizontal machining center. Today, the GE480H consistently delivers tight tolerances of ±1μm with excellent repeatability. With its 500mm pallet size and an 800mm machining envelope, Enshu’s unique design offers B&B extraordinary capacity and flexibility.
B&B now produces 10,000 components annually on their Enshu, running it eight hours a day. They utilize specially designed fixturing within the large envelope of the GE480H, allowing them to machine six complete parts with every load. Compared to the other three horizontal machines used the shop over the past 15 years, the Enshu outlasts and outruns them all for maximum efficiency.
Bill Balcerzak, Owner of B&B Products Inc., is pleased with the overall success of their machine. “Our Enshu is the highest quality, best running, least problematic machine I’ve purchased in my career. Its lightning-fast ability throughout the years has provided the efficiency and reliability we need to keep our production up to speed. Time is money, and Enshu is worth it.”
