Setting Up Shop

In May 2019 the Canadian division of Moeller Precision Tool was opened in Ayr, Ont., with a 5,000-sq.-ft. shop floor and employing 12 people. Photo courtesy of Moeller Precision Tool Canada.

Moeller Precision Tool, with headquarters in Wixom, Mich., began as a mom-and-pop shop about 60 years ago making small components for the aerospace sector. And although the shop’s primary focus was aerospace, the company also had a small machine shop that supported its tooling segment. Over the years Moeller has evolved and expanded to follow market trends. Eventually the aerospace division was sold to focus more on the tooling division.

With locations in the U.S. and Mexico, the company has also maintained a presence in Canada over the past 10 years. This small presence presented some challenges for the company, particularly as they related to the exchange rates and being able to compete with Canadian companies.

Just last year the company decided that the only way to continue was to set up shop in Ontario. In May 2019 the Canadian division of Moeller Precision Tool was opened in Ayr, Ont., with a 5,000-sq.-ft. shop floor and employing 12 people.

"Right now in Ontario, especially the Toronto and Mississauga area, we’re the new kid on the block," said Max Sattar, general manager, Moeller Precision Tool Canada. "With this current pandemic, everybody’s fighting for a little bit of business to keep their people employed and to keep the machines running. For us, the biggest challenge is quoting and not undercutting ourselves with pricing. We won’t play that game. Moeller is a healthy company and we can withstand this challenge and continue to produce quality parts that are priced appropriately. Our competitors know us and the company’s years of experience in this sector, so that helps us."

Ninety per cent of what Moeller manufactures is for the automotive sector; it is a Tier 1, 2, and 3 automotive supplier. Sattar explained that the shop deals both with the OEMs and subcontractors and can take anywhere from one piece to thousands of parts. But right now, about 80 per cent of its business comes from 20 per cent of its customers, although it does carry inventory for some.

The Shop

And one of the ways the shop has been able to lean on the years of experience the company has was through equipment acquisition. The shop currently runs a number of mills, lathes, and grinding machines, but also invested in two Mitsubishi wire EDM machines, the MV1200-R Advance Plus M800 for precision and fine finish and the MV1200-S Advance Type M800 for more general use.

"Everything that we procured for the Canadian location was decided by the president of the company, Frank Duquet," said Sattar.

He added that the company has been successfully running its machine shop in the U.S. for decades, and Duquet wanted to replicate its best practices in the Canadian location. Many of the machine tools, but particularly the EDM machines, were chosen based on their track record of producing high-quality parts for Moeller in other divisions.

"It was also important to ensure that what we were installing in Canada had the support and service to back up the machines," said Sattar. "This was another big reason why we chose the Mitsubishi wire EDMs. And it also helped that we have had a great relationship with this company for years."

Another advantage of purchasing Mitsubishi wire EDMs is that all the operators at the company’s U.S. locations are familiar with the system.

MC Machinery Systems’ MV1200-R Advance Plus M800 features new improvements in machine construction, autothreading, internal machine communication, power supply technology, and operating costs for advanced EDM. Photo courtesy of MC Machinery Systems.

"If we run into any issue, we can reach out to the Mitsubishi sales team," said Sattar. "But we also can just give our headquarters a call and they have all the knowledge about application-specific questions and can walk us through any of the problems they’ve experienced in the past."

It was important both for corporate and Sattar to have reliable machines on the shop floor and get reliable service for them to ensure that they could produce the quality parts that customers expected. The shop has been up and running for about a year now, and Sattar said that so far he has no complaints.

Growth Opportunities

Having two wire EDM units on the shop floor has been an asset to Sattar, who said that the machines are working hard but still not running at full capacity.

"We do run a lights-out operation on the machine where our operators set up the two EDMs with the proper fixturing and they can cut from four to six hours per night," he said. "So we are gaining added productivity with that. Eventually we want to run the machines 24/7. Also, we are currently looking at how the remote360 machine monitoring system can help us. If our operators are able to monitor the machines on their phones, that would be really useful."

As a new shop, Moeller Canada is still gaining its footing but has a lot of support to help it grow. For right now Sattar doesn’t expect to make any other machine acquisitions in the next fiscal year. However, in the next two years, it wouldn’t be out of the question for the shop to expand with additional EDM equipment.

"If I had my wish list right now, I would probably take an EDM drill and sinker EDM," said Sattar. "We are a punch and die button manufacturer. There’s only a handful of us around, and we all use the same equipment and we all compete against each other. So when it comes to this industry, there are only a few methods of making punches and die buttons. The EDM gives us that eciency that we are looking for, especially with the speed of the wire. If the wire EDM is running and cutting at its capacity, that’s all we need. We aren’t currently at that point yet, so we do have the capability to take on more jobs. For right now we are not manufacturing any sort of big die sections or cutouts. Instead we are focusing on the simple punches and die buttons."

Associate Editor Lindsay Luminoso can be reached at lluminoso@canadianmetalworking.com.

Moeller Precision Tool Canada, moellerpunch.com

MC Machinery Systems, www.mcmachinery.com

The MV1200-S Advance Type M800 is designed for small-parts manufacturing and includes a non-contact cylindrical drive system on the X- and Y- axis drives. Photo courtesy of MC Machinery Systems.