Wiegel Tool Works News

Illinois Shop Quadruples Volume with Mitsubishi

The demand for accuracy never ends. Couple that with steadily increasing customer demand for faster turnaround, and the pressures on stampers and die makers can become incredible. One company that specializes in complete turnkey packages has parlayed a significant investment in Mitsubishi electronic discharge machining (EDM) into remarkable success - both in sales and enhanced reputation for the firm.

Stamper/Die Maker With A Difference

Wiegel Tool Works, Wood Dale, IL, has a 63-year history of innovation and, recently, remarkable growth. It is now headquartered in a 48,000 sq. ft. facility, its fourth Chicago-area address since its formation. The modest-sized building bristles with high-tech machinery. Fifty-five employees work two shifts, six days a week. Wiegel Tool Works presses (60-400T range) yield parts that are concentrated heavily in the electronics field, and consist of pieces that go into systems in automotive, insert molds, telecommunications and other industries. Included components consist of:

automotive window latches and systems
internal switches for transmissions
various types of electrical contacts

The metals range from bare red metals and highly alloyed copper based alloys, stainless steels and very little commercial steel. Most of the stamped metal products are pre-plated materials (tin, silver, gold, palladium, nickel, copper flash), in addition to many post-plated intricate terminals. Tolerances are strict; customers expect Wiegel Tool Works to hold .0005" accuracy and better on many jobs. The company is both ISO/TS 16949:2002 certified. "My father started this company in 1941 - the day before Pearl Harbor," declares President Marty Wiegel. "After my father died, I came into the firm in 1968.

Wiegel Tool Works was mostly a tool and die, design and build house. Around 1994, I decided to stop building tooling strictly for the outside. Previously, we'd build and send our quality and know-how to other stamping companies. Since then, we've gone steadily upward, adding $1-2 million of new tooling into our press room each year." How far up have they gone? In 1994, with 50 employees, Wiegel Tool Works booked less than $4 million worth of business. Today, with 55 workers, they've more than quadrupled their sales. Much of that growth has come in stamping orders from increasingly demanding customers.

Mitsubishi EDM Plays Big Role

One of the keys to this growth, says Marty Wiegel, has been Mitsubishi EDM equipment. "We're intertwined with Mitsubishi," Wiegel explains. His company got its first Mitsubishi EDM, a DWC80, in 1984. A flood of Mitsubishi EDMs followed. Today, five of the six EDM machines on Wiegel Tool Works floor are Mitsubishi: three SX20s, an FA10P and an FA20P.

A System 3R Workmaster robot links the last two machines. Both machines and the robot were purchased through Taltek Machining Systems, Inc., St. Charles, IL, Wiegel Tool Works uses the wire EDM primarily to cut the die components. "We'll buy oversized blocks, by maybe an inch in every direction, except for thickness," says Wiegel. "We'll cut the die components first in vertical machining centers, and then use the EDM to cut the blocks to exact dimensions inside and outside. We'll throw away $15 in steel, a fraction of the price they'd have to pay a machinist to do the costly sawing and sizing of blocks for heat treatment."

Controlling The Climate

Another reason for the firm's success is a completely climate-controlled room the EDM units work in. Marty Wiegel added this innovation in 1999.

"The ultimate customer is the press," Wiegel explains. "We were finding minute variations in dimensions. You just can't perfectly match stamping various die blocks done on different days, if one was cut with the ambient temperature at 70 degrees and the other cut at 80 degrees - you lose a tenth or so. With the tolerances our customers are demanding today, that's unacceptable."

"With the climate-controlled machining room, those variations are all in the past," the executive continues. "We're getting the accuracy we want now. We just did four plates for a 10-up tool, with just about zero clearance, really - it came out magnificently, and the blocks went together perfectly. We used to outsource a fair amount of outside wire work - we really can't farm much of anything out anymore; we need to control the quality. Our Mitsubishi EDM machines give it to us in-house."

The climate-controlled machining room also helps with maintenance, Wiegel finds. "The Mitsubishi machines are in a controlled environment. They get regular maintenance, and as a result you get hospital-clean electronics - it's fantastic," Wiegel enthuses. "We really haven't had any trouble with any of the Mitsubishis at all." He adds that the operators help in this area. Two operators together run all six EDM machines and the robot, keeping them operating on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. The main operator, Wiegel confides, is "fanatical" about cleanliness. That worker has been to several schools at Mitsubishi's nearby headquarters; the other was trained by a former co-worker. The robot is used primarily to change workpieces, remove dies and feed new blocks into the machines, facilitating the 24-hour operation.

An obsessive attention to accuracy is still another factor in Wiegel Tool Works rapid growth. Despite Mitsubishi's built-in reputation for accuracy, Wiegel Tool Works has each machine checked by laser every two years and recalibrated. The company also spends a great deal of time ensuring that the relationship of EDM wire to work piece is "dead perfect square" - an area some outside wire firms overlook, Wiegel claims.

Quality Approach Pays Off

Shop owner, Marty Wiegel stands in front
of his Mitsubishi FA10P and FA20P, linked
together by a robot

"Our company has a reputation for quality now, and it's starting to be felt in our business. It's all due to the way we've gone about ensuring accuracy in our work. The Mitsubishi EDM machines have definitely helped us - we're very happy with them, especially the new FA units." Wiegel attributes the rest of his company's recent success to plain hard work and attention to detail. "When a problem comes up, you might be able to fix it in production - but did you find the real root cause of the problem? You have to find that, or the problem is going to come up again and again. That's what we've been doing for many years."