Mayville Engineering Company levels parts to meet tight tolerances and facilitate robotic welding

Mayville, WI – Process efficiency requires precision throughout the process, something Mayville Engineering Company (MEC) achieves with level parts. The Wisconsin-based company levels parts after cutting to keep them within a tight +/- 3 mm tolerance to facilitate robot welding. MEC works with high-strength steels and finding a leveler to handle increasing material thicknesses was key to elimination of virtually all part-rework, this leading to new business opportunities.

MEC provides a broad range of prototyping, manufacturing, production fabricating, coating and assembly services to customers in the agricultural, construction, military, recreational vehicle, medical and industrial markets. Processes at MEC’s 17 facilities throughout North America range from laser/plasma cutting to press brake forming, stamping, tube laser cutting, tube bending, machining, welding, ecoat/powder coating, military CARC coating, and assembly.

With so many processes involved, parts requiring re-work are the enemy at MEC. “We need to ensure that good and parts are running through our processes,” said Kevin Smith, Quality/Engineering Manager at MEC. “As the size and thickness of the parts increased, and we started using higher strength steels, we needed a leveler that could effectively handle it. We found it with the ARKU FlatMaster® 55 165.”

The decision did not come quickly however. “We tested parts at the ARKU Leveling Center for about 6 months,” added Smith. “This was a big decision for us. We needed to recude re-work because we founds it’s much more cost-effective to run parts through a capable leveler than it is to re-work a part. After we acquired the FlatMaster®, rework has been virtually eliminated.”

Acquisition of the FlatMaster® also opened a new business stream for MEC. “We’re now doing about 1.5 million parts a month in contract leveling,” added Smith. “It’s built to handle heavy use of tough materials, so we put it to work. Between the capability to handle thicker, higher strength materials and increase the final part quality, the FlatMaster® has had a big impact on our business.

Premier is proud to work with ARKU on leveling solutions for our customers – Learn more at Sales 414-254-5150 / info@pmtmidwest.com