Seyer Productivity Levels Set to Take-Off With Starrag

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aerospace

Seyer Productivity levels set to take-off with Starrag

If there was ever a ‘cracking’ story of a company’s rise to prominence, you wouldn’t have to look much further than Seyer Industries. As a world-class manufacturer investing in machine tools from a world-leading brand like Starrag to manufacture critical aerospace components, growth at the Missouri-based manufacturer conceived in a farmer’s garage in 1957 is reaching boiling point.

It was self-taught tinkerer and inventor Lou Seyer who made enough money in the 1950s from his ‘Easy Egg Cracker’ invention for boiled eggs to partner with Harold Buckner and purchase machinery from a failing business. In the early 1980s, the company started manufacturing support equipment for the military as well as working on McDonnell Douglas Aircraft – the success has been exponential ever since.

Now, Seyer is a 3rd generation familyowned aerospace company that has developed into a world-class manufacturer with four primary product groups operating from a 210,000 sq/ft facility. This includes supporting customers in the commercial aerospace, military aerospace, military support equipment and maritime industries. The investment strategy is proving successful, as the AS:9100D, ISO:9001, ITAR registered and NADCAP certified company has grown 20% year over year for the last 5 years. One impressive element of the company’s investment strategy is its 1.8MW solar panel system that generates over 30% of Seyer’s electricity needs. Covering three of its four buildings, the only reason the 4,216-panel installation doesn’t qualify as Missouri’s largest commercial solar-powered system is because it is spread over three buildings.

Despite this, Seyer’s commitment to minimizing its carbon footprint is admirable and exceeds the largest in-state installation of 4,085 panels on top of the world known Swedish furniture store.

Discussing the company’s activities, Mark Seyer President at Seyer Industries says: “Our mission is to be the best-inclass supplier of complex aerospace products. Seyer specializes in hard metal machining and deep bills of material. We offer great value through vertical integration and a high degree of collaboration with customers. As part of our efforts to take complex problems off our customers’ hands, we have built our process offering to support large, hard-material machined parts and assemblies. As price and lead time are everything in aerospace, adding the capability of large-capacity machining will help Seyer offer a complete partner solution for more of our customers. To achieve this, we have decided to invest in machine tools from Starrag.”

Starrag’s reputation as the world’s leading machine tool partner for the aerospace industry is beyond reproach. Working with most of the world’s aerospace primes and their supply chains, Starrag was the obvious choice for Seyer when it won a contract to manufacture defense industry components. With the project requiring the machining of hard metal parts with dimensions of 57 inch × 43 inch × 51 inch (1 m × 300 mm × 300 mm), the billets had to undergo high material removal machining with impeccable precision and surface finishes on the completed parts. The solution was the Starrag Heckert 800 X5.

“Our mission is to be the best-in-class supplier of complex aerospace products.”

Mark Seyer President at Seyer Industries

“During the sales portion of our journey, Starrag sold itself as an ‘engineering company that manufactures machines.’ From contract negotiations through the build cycle of the machine, the Starrag Group has been fantastic to work with, especially regarding the customization and design elements of the machine.”

Looking to the next step in evolution for this department at Seyer, the company has already committed to machine number two – a 6-axis Starrag STC 1800-170 set to be delivered in the fall.

“ There is no room for error with the parts we plan to produce on this machine.”

Mark Seyer President at Seyer Industries

The 6-axis Starrag STC1800-170 has been purchased for manufacturing large titanium structural parts for the defense industry – and with a 130 inch × 80 inch × 80 inch (3.3 m × 2 m × 2 m) capacity, the new Starrag STC1800-170 will add both capacity and capability that will give Seyer a huge competitive advantage. Discussing the parts lined up for machining on the STC1800-170 when it arrives, Mark Seyer continues: “We expect this machine to mainly process stainless steel, titanium, and Inconel structural aerospace components, typically in smaller batch sizes in the realm of 2 to 10 pieces.” To manufacture these challenging materials, Seyer has specified its STC1800-170, with a 70 HP (53kW) mechanical spindle that boasts over 958ft/lbs (1300 Nm) of torque at 100% duty cycle with a spindle speed of 5,600 rpm. The power of the HSK-A100 spindle enables this machine to deliver class-leading material removal rates of beyond 50 cubic inch (800cm3/min) on titanium, giving Seyer the industry’s most robust and productive machine available for the aerospace sector. The quality and stability of this spindle are so assured, Starrag provides a 5-year warranty that can be extended to a decade – giving Seyer complete peace of mind.

Optimizing flexible manufacturing, the 6-axis machine STC1800-170 selected by Seyer can handle very large parts and is equipped with a tilt station that allows the machining of parts in both the horizontal and vertical orientation, the STC1800-170 permits one-hit machining that will reduce set-ups and enhance component quality for the aerospace manufacturer.

As expected with a brand that leads the way in the aerospace and defense industry, features such as automatic calibration and verification of machine kinematics, temperature-controlled coolant, probing reports, and extreme accuracy levels are standard on their Starrag machine. Furthermore, with Seyer recognizing that hard metals require a large number of cutting tools, the manufacturer has chosen to equip their new STC with a 450-position automatic tool changer with an RFID system and tool verification laser for unsurpassed process control.

"Starrag comes with a great reputation of providing robust machines with top-notch accuracy and precision.”

Mark Seyer, President at Seyer Industries

The Starrag Group automation solutions makes Industry 4.0 a reality.

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