Gearing up for better production

The Grayco Machine team poses in the company’s 9,000-sq.-ft. shop. (Top row left to right) Vitali Golub and Graham Peterson (Bottom row left to right) Peter Braun, Satnam Dhami, and Jerry Deneve.

Established in 1997, Grayco Machine Ltd., Leduc, Alta., manufactures parts for the agricultural and oil industries.

Because more than half of the company’s business stems from the oil industry, it specializes in producing pinions and gears for pump jacks as well as wire-line winches for oil drilling rigs. These winches have many different applications in the oil industry, including lowering tools down drilled holes to measure depth, pressure, and angles.

Despite ongoing volatility in the oil industry over the years, the shop has managed to stay afloat when many of its competitors have not thanks to the vision of its owner, Graham Peterson. A Red Seal journeyman machinist, Peterson is a longtime proponent of machining and apprenticeship programs. An apprentice and training scholarship through the Alberta Advanced Education Apprenticeship and Industry Training system that bears his name is a testament to his support of the trade.

Peterson, who has served on the Alberta Provincial Apprenticeship Committee that evaluates and improves machinist training programs, understands and appreciates the need for skilled machinists, and his shop reflects it. All employees are highly skilled Red Seal journeyman machinists who are well-versed in both manual and CNC machine operations.

EDM gear production

Grayco’s 9,000-sq.-ft. facility houses manual and CNC mills and lathes, EDMs, and Sykes herringbone gear cutters. Lately the wire EDM has been kept especially busy.

“We use the wire for doing internal and external splines and a lot of gear teeth,” said Peterson. “These parts are programmed with CAM software because we use it to generate all the profiles.”

To manufacture gears, programmers use a wire EDM coupled with CAM software from Mastercam®.

From basic 2-axis contouring to complex 4-axis motion, Mastercam Wire creates efficient wirepaths and cutting techniques. Grayco uses full 3-D CAD modeling, automatic lead-in and lead-out strategies, and multiple-part cutting, which are all features of the software package. It also permits control over wire motion, angle, and entries and exits. File tracking and change recognition allow for simple programming and reprogramming.

Once Peterson’s staff programs a part, job elements can be modified and wirepaths are immediately updated without restarts. The programmers then build a library of machining strategies by simply choosing saved operations and applying them to a part. The software then adapts the operations to the new model, saving time.

Herringbone gears are part of Grayco’s gear production, and according to Peterson, significant growth is anticipated. For gearmaking, hardened castings, high-carbon alloy steels, and aluminum bronze are the materials of choice. To create complex part geometries, programmers rely on CAM software to generate gear G-code, tooth profiles, and shapes.

Red Seal journeyman machinist and CNC programmer Jerry Deneve programs the toolpaths for one of Grayco’s many gears.

“We’re using the software almost exclusively to program our machines,” said Peterson. “We’re getting into more and more difficult programs and part profiles. We can’t do it by hand anymore.”

As Grayco produces parts with increasingly intricate shapes, programmers continue to rely on the wire EDMs and the software that runs them. Verification tools ensure that the toolpath motion achieves intended outcomes. In the case of Grayco gears, roughing is minimized. Usually one rough pass and one finish pass are all it takes to complete the gearmaking process. Surface finish tolerances of 64 Ra to 8 Ra are achieved.

“Mastercam helps us achieve a very accurate wirepath, especially on gear teeth,” said Grayco Machine Red Seal journeyman machinist and CNC programmer Jerry Deneve. “We can get right down to grinding tolerances with the wire EDM and can meet surface finish requirements with the help of the software.”

As is the case for most job shops, turnaround times are a driving force here. Incoming work requires one-up or two-up part production, not 50. According to Peterson, a customer idea goes from pad and paper, through Mastercam, and into the finished part within a short timeframe.

“Some of the jobs we do, you just can’t program them longhand with a notepad,” he said. “You need [software] to come up with those kinds of profiles, shapes, and programs for the EDM. It goes back to being a jobber shop trying to do things quickly.”

“You have to be able to spit that out fast to be profitable,” added Deneve.

Grayco keeps up with its production schedule with the help of C-Hook technology. Similar to an app, this utility program extends Mastercam’s capabilities. A large library of C-Hooks comes with each software install. The C-Hook Gear app is used to create a single tooth or all teeth of an involute spur or entire gear. In addition, it computes the roll measurement for checking the gear.

For this small shop, staying competitive means thinking big. It requires the flexibility to take on jobs, even those that did not seem feasible in the past.

Large parts require creativity

CAM software gives Grayco the flexibility to manufacture a variety of part geometries and sizes. If a piece is too large to fit on a machine, for example, an operator can work on one corner of the part at a time. He can program that corner, rotate the part on the machine, turn the model in the software package, repost it, and go again. According to Deneve, in nine out of 10 cases, when a large part comes through Grayco’s door, programmers figure out how to machine it.

“We’ve machined some pretty big gears,” he said. “If we get something large, we have to be able to program it. Mastercam helps us achieve that.”

A planetary gear carrier was machined on mill and its internal spline was cut on a wire EDM.

Grayco contracts out surface modelling of its herringbone gears, but that will soon change. The company plans to move herringbone gear pinion production to milling machines. Current mill feeds are 200 hundred inches per minute; Grayco anticipates purchasing a new machine that can accommodate up to 300 surface feet per minute with 20,000-RPM speeds to achieve required surface finish accuracy.

“We know that’s where we have to go,” said Deneve of updating the job shop. “We’ve done it nine ways to Sunday with the old machines, but now we have to get modernized with the surfaces and 3-D modelling to move to a different level.”

Since it began using Mastercam, Grayco has made better, more complicated parts at a faster pace. Mistakes and rework have been significantly reduced, and scrap is minimized. Modernization of this small but mighty job shop is possible thanks to the time savings and financial benefits provided by CAM software.

All photos courtesy of Grayco Machine.

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