124Phone: 516-328-3970www.technocnc.comCNC Articlesindustrial diamonds to tungsten steel hardplate. The company includes fi re protection, standard on all models, ranging from 30 minutes at 1200oF to 105 minutes at 1550oF for different models.Previous manual machiningmethodsThe notched racks that hold the gunsinside the safe are cutout of three-quarterinch particleboard. The geometry of the racks is complex because each rack typically holds 20 to 30 guns. In the past, skilled woodworkers cut these racks usinghand routers with bearing bits by follow-ing templates, and with table saws. The accuracy of the racks depended on the accuracy of the templates, and making good templates required patience and long experience. Frequently, templates were ruined and new ones had to be made before the job could continue. A skilled craftsman was needed to ac-curately follow the lines of the template. Even though the operator would follow the template carefully, he or she might bump corners or otherwise damage thetemplate so that it got worn out and had to be replaced. For all these reasons, one person was only able to produce enough components for about 20 to 30 CNC Router Provides 400% Productivity Gain for Woodworking ManufacturerSwitching from conventional power tools to a CNC router helped a manufacturer of gun safes increase productivity by 400%. When Champion Safes used power tools to produce racks for its gun cases, each person could only produce enough parts for 20 to 30 safes per day. To increase productivity, the company invested in a computerized numerical control (CNC) router that works unattended to produce parts of any shape, simple or complex, based on a computer program. Now a single person can produce all the parts needed for 120 safes in one day. Quality has been substantially improved because the CNC router doesn’t make mistakes and cuts to an accuracy of 0.002 inch compared to typical 1/16 accuracy for manual cutting. “We have substantially reduced our manufacturing costs while increasing our quality,” said Terry Zierenberg, Director of Engineering for Champion Safes, Provo, Utah. “What’s really amazing is that the CNC routerthat does all this costs only $15,000.”Champion Safes has been building heavy and tough safes since 1998. Thecompany’s safes sell for between $800 and $2,500. Champion Safe bodies are pressure-formed from thick A-36 carbon steel plate with fully welded top and bottom caps. Doors are built out of heavy A-36 carbon steel plate with sandwiched fi re insulation, offering more security and better fi re protection than a plate steel door alone.Championuses heavy-duty, ball bearing internal hinges and multiple relockers that col-lectively protect a safe against drilling and forced entry. Champion Safe is the only home security safe company to use a glass, bank-vault type relocker. To protect the lock from attack, it bonds gun safes per day and fi ve people would have been needed to handle today’s production volume.Zierenberg had long thought about purchasing a CNC machine to perform this operation but, when he originally checked, the cost of these machines put themoutofreach. “When I worked for a competitive safe company, we bought a CNC router for $65,000,” he said. “Prices have dropped since then but until a couple of years ago, the cheapest machine that I could fi nd that would do this job cost about $45,000, which was more than we could justify,” he said. “These were machines with servo- motors and ball screws that pro-vide high levels of accuracy, and large tables that make it possible to produce big parts. We didn’t want to spend that much because we only have one group ofwoodproducts,sowecanonlyusethemachine in a few areas. When I heard about Techno’s LC router, which of-fers essentially the same features and capabilities for under $15,000, my fi rst question was: can it hold up? I saw a demonstration at a local dealer and it looked good so I decided that for thatmoney it was worth the gamble.”New router offers mix ofperformance and economyTechno’s LC series CNC routing system provides a number of critical features that allow it to deliver accuracy and long-term reliability of a level that has previously only been available from machines at a much higher cost. Ball screws are provided on all three axes, offering smooth motion, a high level of accuracy and repeatability, and mini-mal maintenance. Ball screws have a number of advantages over racks.
