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(Eau Claire, Wis., U.S.) specializes in buildto-order machine tools tailored to meet specific needs. Its customers manufacture a wide range of products — personal watercraft and automotive components from composites, plastic and aluminum extrusions and window and door components made from wood.

“We have 12 different product lines, but the magic of our company is that our engineering is modular,” says founder and president, Scott Kauphusman. “Our machines are configured based on the requirements for production of specific parts, but they combine common modules. For example, our door slab machines and Gemini CNC nesting routers use common base and bridge weldment platforms, control pedestals, control heads and sheet metal shrouds to cover the spindles. We also use standard robots and orthogonal coordinate system machines as part of our core technologies. But we customize clamping, machining tables and other aspects of the system configuration. We package these together to create a solution that makes the most sense for what the customer needs to accomplish.”

A prime example is the company’s hybrid machining centers. “We have an overhead robot trimmer which uses a base from our High Aspect Ratio Parts, or HARP series, and mounts a six degree of freedom robot to it,” says Kauphusman. “This enables nine-axis machining of a watercraft or boat hull with the increased flexibility and reach of an industrial robot. It lets you access areas not possible with a traditional CNC machine, yet still delivers that stability for accuracy.”

The overhead robot system that MTC exhibited at CAMX 2024 also featured a triple capability tool and augmented efficiency. “We can drill, route and saw without needing a tool change,” says Kauphusman. “The articulated robot gives you unprecedented reach to undercut features without having to flip the part or perform multiple operations.”

But the company goes even further, integrating additional steps before and after machining, including part loading and unloading plus assembly of completed parts, but also reading barcodes to pull the machining parameters from the ERP/MRP system and then logging back in process data and job status once the part is machined. “We are integrating automation so that workers are not spending time on those steps, but they are instead completed by the intelligence built into the machine,” says Kauphusman.

“Just making chips isn’t enough,” he adds. “We are helping companies figure out how to automate their process, because this is where they’re getting caught. If you’re going to move forward in manufacturing, you’re going to have to think about the people, the part complexity and the whole production process. This is what we do.”

From camp to customized new machines

Incorporated in 1997, there have been four stages in MTC’s development. “The first was designing and engineering hobbyist-level machines that people could build in their basement or garage,” says Kauphusman. “Ultimately, we wrote six books on how to build these machines and also sold kits, which included all the parts. That led to the next iteration — and where the name Machine Tool Camp comes from — when we held ‘camps’ where customers would come to our shop with the kits and we would teach them how to build the machines.”

However, with the development of the internet, that business faded. “Over the years, we also sold other machines, some from the U.S. and some imported from Europe,” he says. “And then we began remanufacturing used machines, installing new CNC controls to breathe life into older iron. But after the recession, the goal was to get back to new machines, this time manufacturing under our own roof and brand. And that’s what we’ve done since.”

In this fourth stage of the business, the first core product MTC developed was the HARP series for machining long, skinny parts, notes Kauphusman. “There were already CNC routers that could cut wood parts, but most of the industry was working with 4 × 8-foot sheets of materials. So there were vacuum holding systems for those, but not for the long, narrow parts for door jambs, door stiles and door rails, nor for all the plastic and aluminum extrusions and composite pultrusions for doors and windows which are also used in other industries.”

He notes that most other brands of machines would have a table with a 5 × 10-foot or 5 × 12-foot work area to machine a part that was 2 inches wide, 1 inch tall and 8 feet long, for example. “They were huge machines for a long, skinny part. So, we developed the HARP series, which had a much smaller footprint and lower cost because it was designed specifically for these parts. We also didn’t want to use vacuum clamping, because the parts were not flat enough, so we used mechanical clamping. That was the start of MTC manufacturing and selling its own new machines, and HARP remains one of our best-selling products.”

Modular, hybrid machine tools for composites

Kauphusman notes MTC can use robots or orthogonal machines, or combine them. “We sell many more HARP machines that don’t have an overhead robot, and we also sell robots without the HARP base, like our small trimmers and sanders. There are thousands of potential configurations, and the applications in composites can be wildly different. For example, we’re building a robot cutting machine for compression molded electric vehicle charging station parts but also systems used to produce consumer parts and aerospace filament wound parts.”

Most commonly, MTC machines are for cutting, routing, drilling, milling and sawing, with sanding as the next most popular, says Kauphusman. “The hybrid overhead robot system that we had at CAMX 2024 is quoted more frequently for sanding and finishing than for trimming, but we’ve also sold similar systems for machining automotive interior trim, while for the charging station parts they needed that robot accessibility but with a pretty big table. The configuration of any machine really comes down to what tools we need to put on the part and where.”

There is some tailoring of machines for various composite materials, but mostly via the machine tools required. For example, MTC has built machines for making personal watercraft, which can be thermoformed using thermoplastic resins or made with gelcoat and spray-up using thermoset resins. “We will use one set of machine tools for the thermoformed part production and a very different type for the spray-up laminates,” says Kauphusman. “So, even though they are the same machines, they are using different types of tools and machining at different speeds.”

Using robots

When you combine a robot with an orthogonal coordinate system, you can use a robot with a much shorter reach, notes Kauphusman, “but robots aren’t as rigid as an orthogonal machine. We have a 350-kilogram robot that has a 12-foot reach, but when it’s fully extended, it has low structural rigidity. However, that robot can articulate and reach inside and under, so it has a smaller end effector footprint than an orthogonal machine. But you still can’t position it within 0.002 inch because there’s no mechanical system that has the stiffness and zero backlash required.”

MTC has developed a solution to this problem. “Instead of using a 12-foot-reach robot, we use a 4-foot-reach, high-inertia robot that is short and fat, designed to handle higher inertial loads. Even though its reach is very short, we use the orthogonal system to drive it, extending the robot’s reach and stability, enabling high-accuracy machining around the whole part — this unlocks efficiency.”

Kauphusman gives another example. “We had a project for a company building a composite cabin cruiser boat with a sleeping area beneath the helm station. The fiberglass hull needed portholes and other machining operations, but you couldn’t just come down from the top and reach in. You had to go underneath other structures. With this hybrid system, you could do all of that machining with a single setup, which is so much more efficient than having to flip the part upside down and again refine your zero point before doing the next machining operation.”

Increased efficiency versus lead time, cost

The ability to eliminate steps with these hybrid machines is enticing, but they are customized — so, doesn’t that increase lead time and cost? “We are a build-to-order company, so our lead times are longer than for cookie-cutter CNC machines,” says Kauphusman. “But 95% or more of our projects will have only 10-20% novel engineering. The standard modules have already been engineered, and we then combine those building blocks into a machine solution. But there will still be customizations such as the custom fixture for holding the personal watercraft hull, which has to be held straight and rigid, because if it’s twisted, the features will get machined in the wrong locations.”

“If we were just plugging different Lego blocks together and not doing the custom bit, then it would be faster,” he adds. “What we’re offering is a modular system that is customized, but not typically more than 20%. And that will still take longer and cost more than the standard metals industry milling machine with a 40 × 20-inch table. But then that standard machine is also all you’ll get.”

In contrast, Kauphusman describes a project machining composite pultrusions — where traditional CNC routers cost less money but weren’t making production efficient. “They wanted to machine five faces of a part, which is very difficult for a standard milling machine to do,” he explains, “but we have developed a way to do that. After machining, they have a small plastic clip they want to have screwed onto the side of the part. So, we’ll combine the milling capability and that assembly step. And this is another key part of our business — using the same types of machines, but integrating assembly, which means addressing handling, such as pick-and-place systems. Those capabilities are frequently integrated into our products.”

Integrating intelligence

MTC does build simple machines for customers that use industry standard CAD/CAM programming software and that’s all they need, says Kauphusman. “But we’re also delivering machines that are enterprise-wide connected where there’s no programming because everything is written behind the scenes. And we’re continuing to evolve where we’re never just machining the part.”

This means not only integrating loading and unloading but also zeroing in the part, which has typically been a manual process using a touch probe. “You must define where it is in order to machine the features correctly,” he explains. This is now often included in MTC machine automated operations.

“We’re also now including inventory transactions,” adds Kauphusman. “Typically, there’s a routing that says, ‘Make the widget.’ But someone must manually go to the computer system and enter the transaction that the part has been made to increment inventory in the ERP/MRP systems.” In contrast, MTC has shipped machines that have software to scan a part’s barcode as it comes into the machine. “Our software will then go and tap the company’s SQL Server for its ERP/MRP software to find the part number from the barcode in order to load its length, width and height, as well as its features. That then launches a macro of the tool path to drill a hole or a series of holes, complete with the process parameters. There may also be logging the completed process data and the time the part was on the machine.”

“And just by scanning the barcode,” he continues, “we’re grabbing the work order for that part, processing the part and then when it’s done, we’re pinging that ERP SQL server again, saying that this work order and part are now complete and the part has now moved on to the next production stage. These are all transactions that must happen in addition to making the chips and that a procurement person or operator no longer needs to do.”

“It’s augmenting what the machining center is providing by adding not only steps before and after, but also Industry 4.0 — we are providing data integration into a manufacturing company’s systems. This is what manufacturers are looking to do — to have the related tracking steps integrated into the automation — and that’s a lot of what we do now.”

Enabling more complexity, multifunctionality at high rate

This isn’t just about automation and machine intelligence, says Kauphusman. “You have to talk about the people part of this.” He discusses the general trend in manufacturing toward more complex, tailored parts that integrate multiple functions. This is definitely increasing in composites, along with the demand for increased production rates. “As a machine builder, we are absolutely seeing a migration to more complex sets of tasks, along with this production-rate pressure on supply chains.”

“We see this every week and across industries,” says Kauphusman, “for example, processing pultruded composite parts or extruded aluminum and plastic parts. Customers don’t have a single extrusion cross-section, but 17 cross-sections and maybe more. They also want to machine things down the length, and they need to do this accurately and more quickly. How do we navigate these complexities? That’s part of what MTC is providing.”

“And this complexity increases the need to reduce the human engagement factor,” he adds, “not to take it out of the equation, but to transition it. Companies using traditional machines have people in front of and behind those machines that a system from us doesn’t have. We are evolving machines to reduce the amount of human engagement in machining and assembly but then elevate the level of human engagement across production. There’s more to conquer than just making chips for that one part.”

“If you're going to be in manufacturing, then you have to be forward-thinking,” says Kauphusman. “We all have to rethink what people are doing versus what automated equipment is doing. It’s no longer enough to talk about the machine, it has to be about the whole system — machines, automation, intelligence, data integration, reduction of labor and the best use of the people involved. That’s our foundation at MTC — building machines that increase not only our customer’s return on investment but their overall success.”