From Sailing to Machine Shop Success

A-Line Precision Tool offers boutique-style service to industry’s biggest players

Rob Muru employs a mix of high technology and problem solving to satisfy the demands of the defence industry. All photos by Jon Evans Photography.

It’s a busy day at A-Line Precision Tool in midtown Toronto. Company President Rob Muru is on the phone, sorting out some details concerning a new contract with aerospace giant Bombardier. When he finishes his conversation, he discovers a voice mail message from a naval base regarding a part.

And at the same time, Muru is trying to translate some CAD/CAM files, all while overseeing day-to-day operations at his busy company.

Muru describes A-Line as a boutique supplier to prime military customers.

About three-quarters of the company’s work is aerospace-related. Clients include Curtiss-Wright, Honeywell, Magellan, L-3, and even the Italian navy. Bombardier Aerospace is one of A-Line’s first commercial, non-military customers.

The company had been earning about $6 million a year, but then lost a major customer and sales went down slightly in both 2015 and 2016. Muru remains highly optimistic that his company will soon bounce back. His optimism stems in part from his company’s decades-old reputation for producing high-quality parts, a business philosophy emphasizing cash over credit, and a managerial style focused on flexibility and simplicity.

Be Flexible in a Complex World

A-Line is spread throughout several buildings (all owned by Muru) along Toronto’s McCormack Street. Altogether, the company takes up a total of 27,000 square feet.

“We have five addresses on this street. I have an offer on two more addresses on this street. In theory, I should get one big location, but I have guys that take the subway and they like it here,” said Muru. “Also, I do lots of sailing. [This street] is close to my sailing club. I can get downtown easily, so everything kind of works here.”

The company currently has 30 employees. Muru prefers to hire machinists who are computer-savvy and have transferable skills over specialists qualified for only one task. His staff have worked on some of the top defence aerospace projects in North America, including the F/A-18 Super Hornet, Apache AH-64 attack helicopter, CF-18 Hornet, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The various A-Line buildings are decorated with plastic models of these aircraft, dangling from the ceilings on strings or sitting on top of cabinets. The foyer to the company’s head office building even contains a model of a green Huey Cobra, the helicopter of choice in the Vietnam War.

Multiple Processes, One Company

A-Line’s services include 5-axis machining, CNC turning, electrical discharge machining (EDM), welding, waterjet cutting, CNC sawing, as well as all project development tasks. The company’s certifications include AS9100, ISO 9001:2008, Nadcap (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program), and Canada’s Controlled Goods Program.

(l to r) Paresh Prajapati, Joseph Daniel, Ajmer Singh, and Karuna Samu are all part of the company’s CNC machining and programming crew.

More than 50 machines are installed in the company’s buildings, including CNC lathes and mills, sinker and wire EDMs, waterjets, and grinders. Roughly half of the company’s machine tools are from Haas Automation. Muru said he likes the fact that Haas’ Toronto-area distributor, Sirco Machinery, is minutes away and provides excellent service.

Muru also appreciates Haas’ Next Generation Control (NGC) system, which connects his Haas machines online. This CNC, with optional Wi-Fi capability, sends out email or SMS texts to shop staff on the operating status of their machines.

“We love the programming and simplicity,” said Muru, about the NGC system.

Muru doesn’t restrict himself to Haas machines only, however. One of A-Line’s buildings contains two waterjet machines, one made by OMAX and the other by Flow. The machines are being used to cut titanium jet engine parts for U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornets.

Another building contains a row of Haas machine tools, including a Haas TL-3 CNC Toolroom Lathe, in front of which is a wooden skid containing what look like giant silver thimbles. These are actually aluminum “horns” for satellite antennas, explained Muru. A nearby machine—a Baron-Max KL-3080 flat bed lathe—is working on a much larger satellite horn.

“This is a Baron-Max, because Haas doesn’t make a toolroom lathe this big,” said Muru of the machine that is nearly twice as big.

The same room contains inspection equipment and parts for Apache helicopters. These parts are specifically intended for the very complex gearbox of those helicopters.

Another building contains sleeping quarters and a kitchen for staff in need of food or rest. While A-Line doesn’t usually run 24/7, it will work around the clock to finish rush jobs or big orders.

As for the personnel operating these machines, Muru said he likes machinists with broad skill sets, who excel at both mill and lathe applications and can do their own [CNC] programming and their own setups.

The company uses Mastercam, a CAD/CAM program from CNC Software, as much as possible. Because of the software’s popularity, many new hires already know how to use it. Those who don’t can be brought up to speed quickly. On this day Muru was arranging for customer CAD files sent in CATIA® format to be translated into Mastercam.

Guan Xian, sink EDM specialist, runs a part on one of the company’s sinker EDMs.

Using common CAD/CAM software and having cross-trained workers is part of the A-Line approach to getting things done.

“It is such a tricky business with so many unknowns. We try to keep it simple,” said Muru.

A-Line: The Beginning

The company was founded by Muru’s father, Ilmar Muru, an Estonia native who came to Canada in the 1950s. In 1964 Ilmar set up a machine shop in Toronto called A-Line Toolworks and Manufacturing. Using only manual machines, he made assembly line tooling for aerospace and defence clients.

Muru explained that he started working at his father’s shop very early in life.

“I probably started in grade eight. I always had a toolbox, a micrometer, that sort of thing,” he said.

When he was a little older, Muru got a finance degree from the University of Western Ontario and did a tool and die apprenticeship. He also has a metallurgy certificate from Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, is a welder, and is a certified engineering technician.

Getting Out of the Shop

In addition to his schooling, Muru did a lot of sailing. He sailed in the prestigious America’s Cup race in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By the late 1980s his father was eager to retire so Rob took over the shop and launched his own version of the company in 1987, under a new name. A framed portrait of Ilmar Muru now hangs in the foyer of A-Line’s head office.

When he stepped in, the company had two employees, a couple milling machines, and a couple manual lathes, said Muru.

Ironically, for a firm so dedicated to defence work, the new company’s first big job involved flagpoles at Toronto’s SkyDome stadium (now the Rogers Centre).

“We made the hardware for the giant banners that went all around the outside of the ’Dome. The project was late and over budget [when we were brought in]. A-Line had just incorporated and we were ready to start with something. I got called in at the 11th hour, so to speak. I used my sailing background and came up with the idea of using sailing spars with existing end fittings that looked clean and professional,” recalled Muru.

Sudip Shrestha, CMM inspection specialist, checks the tolerances of a part after the machining process to ensure it has the required specifications.

A-Line finished the project under budget and ahead of schedule, he added.

Shortly after launching A-Line, Muru moved the fledgling firm to McCormack Street. Starting from a single unit in one building, A-Line quickly grew, acquiring new space and employees, then entire new buildings.

“Right after the ’Dome work, we had our first order of F-18 engine parts, as opposed to F-18 engine tooling. Since then we’ve picked up a whole family of parts for the F-18,” said Muru.

The job in question was for the GE F404 engine version for the Canadian CF-18 fighter.

“I was scared and did not want to make jet engine parts for a plane that goes almost twice the speed of sound. It’s a little stressful,” said Muru. “One machining mistake and the whole plane and pilot can bite the bullet. But we did it and have been making them ever since.”

The focus of the business from that point on leaned heavily toward aerospace, though this wasn’t necessarily by design.

“I didn’t plan anything. It was management by whatever was coming in the door. I’ve never had any sales guys,” said Muru.

Sailing Into Manufacturing

Muru said his passion for sailing was good preparation for his current job.

“Running a machine shop, you’ve overdosed with information. The No. 1 skill I learned from sailing is how to disseminate information, because you’re getting hit from all sides. And in sailing, same as in machining, you need a good start,” he said.

As the owner of a machine shop, Muru also has needed to be flexible.

Shankar Kelanoor, wire EDM specialist, keeps close watch on one of the company’s FANUC wire electrical discharge machines.

“It’s a juggling act, but that’s kind of the nature of the beast. At one point, one of my customers was going to default on $1.5 million of receivables. I didn’t sleep for a month at that point, but that ended up working out OK,” said Muru.

While he now houses his company in a whole series of buildings, Muru admits he never had a sales growth model.

“When we grow, we grow. We just kind of do the work we do, try to do as good a job as possible, and that’s it. We just kind of do our stuff and see what happens,” said Muru.

He also has a simple business philosophy defined by an avoidance of credit.

“I run the whole machine shop with cash in the bank. I haven’t been in a line of credit for 10 years. I don’t spend too much money, and I try not to borrow any money from the bank. We get machines that I can transfer over from one job to another. I don’t get a million-dollar machine for just one part. We’re light on our feet and we can change around,” he explained.

Muru would be happy to eventually hand the business over to his two children, both of whom are currently in university, but only if they are interested and able to handle things.

With that in mind, Muru is keeping all future options on the table, including centralizing operations in one locale or forming strategic partnerships with other firms. That said, he’s quite pleased with how things are right now.

“If I have a giant building, my hands are tied. We try to stay flexible; that’s why we’ve got Haas, that’s why we have got Mastercam, that’s why we have operators that can move between mills and lathes,” he explained. “We just try to run it as simply as we possibly can. I try not to get too smart. I don’t buy any custom machines for one job. It’s all general and it’s worked out really well,” he said.

Contributing writer Nate Hendley can be reached at nhendley@sympatico.ca.

A-Line Precision Tool, 416-769-4557, www.a-linetool.com