Small-batch medical shop embraces automation to capture market share, triple throughput.

The operations group at Ultradent Products Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-tech dental materials and devices sought to increase production of its Valo curing light, used by dental clinicians to cure dental composites, sealants, and various other chemistries.

Valo curing lights are complex pieces of equipment, requiring numerous holes, finishes, and various geometries. In 2017, Ultradent required 45 minutes and three complex machining operations to produce one curing light housing.

Its original manufacturing process involved hand-loading raw materials and finished parts; a cumbersome process for a company with only three employees on the shop floor per shift. The manufacturing setup resulted in the occasional spindle crash, hindering operations and output.

“We needed more reliability and faster cycle times,” says Ryan Umpleby, Sr. CAD/CAM programmer at Ultradent.

Additionally, the company occasionally had to subcontract to other machine shops to meet rising demand, resulting in additional cost and Ultradent still had to perform additional operations to remove imperfections left by the subcontractor.

“We never end up fully outsourcing the part because their costs are too high, or they can’t match our quality,” Umpleby adds.

Realizing the need to reduce the part’s cycle time while increasing repeatability, Ultradent reached out to Methods Machine Tools’ sales engineer David Snow. After exchanging project requirements, the decision was to move forward with two custom automation cells, each comprising of an advanced RoboDrill, a FANUC robotic arm, and raw stock storage. Methods designed the system to hold 60 blanks – uniform pieces of raw material ready for machining. 

Embracing automation At first, implementing a custom automation cell was a hard sell. Not everyone at Ultradent believed a smaller machine could outperform a larger horizontal machining center, one of the other options the company was considering.

“This small RoboDrill with a robot arm was a little intimidating,” Umpleby says. “It’s smaller than a horizontal, it’s automated, and it’s got a robot.”

“Anytime you introduce something new, people can be hesitant,” adds Kevin Marett, an engineering manager at Ultradent.

There was also some concern about possible steep learning curve associated with robotics and automation. Umpleby was tasked with programming the first automation cell and being relatively new to CNC machining at that time, he accessed Methods’ support network of experts – application, automation integration, installation – who helped him get the cell up and running.

“That was kind of an intimating task for me,” Umpleby says. “Between the help of a couple key people at Ultradent and all the support I needed from Methods, we were able to pull together a fantastic automated machining cell.”

The cell provided actionable data points, precise results, and reduced cycle time for a curing light housing more than half – 45 minutes to a 21-minute average. With only three employees on the shop floor per shift, automating the cumbersome process of loading/unloading material significantly improved the workflow.

Support on speed dial With 24/7 operations underway, Ultradent increased its throughput almost threefold while reducing machining costs associated with third-party processing.

While the second RoboDrill automation cell was getting the job done on time and under budget, Ultradent needed to expand the system, so they worked with Methods on designing a larger, third cell that boosted the blank capacity from 60 to 200.

Within a few weeks, Umpleby says they had a working concept, and after executing the idea, the company could automate an entire production run of 200 curing light housings.

“That was a pretty cool milestone for me, to see Methods pull through that quickly on such a huge change to the cell,” he adds.

Soon after, Methods added a fourth 200-capacity automation cell, bringing their total to four RoboDrills and four robotic components. 

Repeatability in action The cells run unattended for 16 hours a day and lights-out on the weekends. In addition to increased throughput and machine uptime, the company has gained the desired repeatability thanks to the RoboDrill's rigid construction and precision.

Since implementing the RoboDrill and automation cell, Ultradent's quality assurance team has noticed a significant improvement in the machining accuracy of the curing light housing with perfectly threaded, 12mm blind holes.

“As we go through inspection data for thousands of units, we find that features don’t move within a half a thousandth of an inch. Part of that is tooling, part of that is how the tooling is held and how the machine is built so it’ll repeat from position to position,” Marett says. 

Using automation to achieve growth Ultradent did more than just increase throughput machine uptime and improve repeatability – they captured more market share.

During the most tumultuous period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the automation cell, combined with Ultradent’s ability to secure raw materials, allowed the company to continue machining. This enabled the company to capture additional market share while competitors lost production time to sick leave or suspended operations.

“We’ve almost doubled our capacity since we came out of COVID, and we couldn’t have done that without our third and fourth RoboDrill cells for sure,” Marett concludes.

Learn how surface intelligence can be implemented at your company.

About the presentation Manufacturers struggle with intermittent failures around cleaning, coating, welding, and bonding operations. These challenges lead to issues with supply chain robustness, warranty risks, damage to brand image, dissatisfied customers, and frustrated employees. This presentation explores advanced inspection technologies, new methodologies, and expertise allowing manufacturers to implement a new type of data across every aspect of their operation – surface intelligence. Join us to learn how surface intelligence data will properly equip your R&D efforts, align your supply chain, guarantee mission-critical decisions, and enable advanced innovation. We’ll delve into real-world case studies that demonstrate how manufacturers remedied long-standing issues and unlocked breakthrough performance by leveraging this new surface intelligence data.

Meet your presenter Science's sales manager, Lucas Dillingham, has more than 15 years of materials science experience. He helped a variety of organizations create specifications, set up workflows, advise on surface preparation techniques, and discover non-obvious variables causing lost time, material, and undue warranty cost. Currently, Dillingham leads the Brighton Science sales team delivering surface intelligence to manufacturing organizations around the world.

About the company Brighton Science is a cutting-edge materials science-based company that delivers effective adhesion quality control for manufacturers who are concerned with adhesive bonding, painting, coating, printing, and cleaning.

Brighton Science equips manufacturers with the insight to reduce scrap, recalls, and rework caused by adhesion failure. Our action-oriented surface lab services, coupled with fast, easy, accurate, and non-destructive surface inspection products provide quantifiable, repeatable tests that produce results that allow manufacturers to fix adhesion problems.

Investing in your people also means investing in their work environment. Create a space that people want to work.

As a third-generation manufacturing business, we have the advantage of the long view. One important thing we have learned involves the value of investing in people. Without the right workforce, technology is useless. So, where do you start? We started by hiring outside human resource (HR) professionals because that’s not our area of expertise. What did they tell us?

The landscape has changed. The economic and generational dynamics have changed. Years ago, our parents had a willing labor pool of often trained, entry-level workers. Persons who would spend a lifetime working at the same job. Today, the younger workforce has different ideas and aspirations about work. They don’t want a dead-end job. They want stimulation. They want growth opportunities. They want a career.

As a result of the deep dive conducted with our HR professionals, we embarked on a top-to-bottom review of everything from wages to job descriptions to incentives and bonuses. Following that, we undertook a complete overhaul of our employee development track and now each person hired has a potential career path with the necessary training to advance to the next open position within the company.

At the core of it, if you want to experience repeat business, you must have a high level of customer satisfaction. If you want to achieve customer satisfaction, you need an engaged, motivated workforce. When a company can point to employees that started in entry-level positions and have risen through the ranks into management and supervisory positions, that company will prosper. That has become the culture of Exothermic Molding.

It all starts with recruitment efforts. We found that casting a wide net paid off and going beyond the traditional means of seeking out employees has paid off. In addition to one-on-one contact at job fairs, we have made direct outreach to the vocational-technical schools in our area offering student internships that can lead to full-time employment following graduation. Currently, we are working with the State of New Jersey to develop a certified apprenticeship program to develop future workers. We have welcomed and embraced a diverse multi-lingual, multi-ethnic workforce, as well. We invite recently discharged veterans because we know they have excellent potential for advancement with their military backgrounds and discipline.

Investing in your people also means investing in their work environment. Create a space that people want to work in – one that feels safe, comfortable, and pleasant. We have invested in upgrades to our physical plant making it more employee-friendly and enjoyable.

From our point of view, each employee must have an opportunity to progress and do better for themselves, and the best way to be sure that happens is by not just offering them a job. Offer them a career.

Paul K. Steck is president of Exothermic Molding Inc. in Kenilworth, NJ, a contract manufacturer of plastic parts for high-tech devices in a variety of industries. Visit: exothermic.com/careers

Learn how metalworking fluid impacts all aspects of the workplace.

About the presentation The cost of any metalworking fluid is a small fraction of the total investment into a manufacturing process. However, it has a large impact because it touches everything in the shop. The idea that this minor player – around 0.5% of the production cost – influences the success of the other 99.5% is called the “leverage effect” of metalworking fluids.

In this session, operations and maintenance managers will learn: 1. The impact of the right metalworking fluid on major cost centers in the shop 2. How to use coolant to extend tool life, increase cutting speeds, and gain process stability 3. Examples of improvement goals from other shops, from productivity to health and safety 4. How to reduce hours on unpleasant maintenance tasks and protect your valuable CNC machines

Meet your presenter Chris Porsch is the sales director for the Midwest and Western regions of Blaser Swisslube. He has a background in Chemistry and a Bachelor’s degree in Business. He developed deep knowledge of metalworking fluids and their applications over the past 8 years, and he is driven to share his expertise to help Blaser Swisslube customers improve processes and reduce manufacturing costs.

About the company For more than eight decades, Blaser Swisslube has been reputed for human-compatible and environment-considerate products. Our customers not only want cutting fluids, but also need a competent partner to help optimize their machining processes. With our committed team, we provide this partnership. More than 80 specialists at our headquarters R&D and technology center are constantly developing better solutions for tomorrow, including innovations such as DNA analysis of cutting fluids and product trials on the latest CNC centers and machine tools.

Join us June 23 at 12PM ET for our Manufacturing Lunch + Learn with Fagor Automation.

Thursday’s 30-minute Manufacturing Lunch + Learn webinar will connect you to industry leaders at Fagor Automation Corporation who will offer insights and technology that will keep you moving ahead. 

Hear from Ryan Adamovic about industrial 3D printing has evolved into a cost effective and versatile solution for the aerospace, automotive, defense, and rapid prototyping sectors. Connect to learn how Fagor Automation works with machine tool manufacturers to integrate ready to go LMD algorithms, custom features, programs, and functionalities into a control system for metal additive, and additive hybrid machining applications.

Register today and you will also receive a link to watch the recording of the event in case you can't attend on Thursday, June 23, 2022.