07.28.10
Banking on Machining
Controlling costs is key with machining and tooling.
Contributing Writer
So far, 2010 has been a challenging year for implant manufacturers. Orders have been cut back due to weak economic activity as well as efforts to keep inventory down. There also is more pressure on manufacturers to expedite deliveries and maintain costs.
“Certainly the trend in medical manufacturing is toward small-volume production,” said Steve Bond, national sales manager for Methods Machine Tools Inc. in Sudbury, Mass., a supplier of precision machine tools, accessories, and engineering support. “Lot sizes are much smaller now in an effort to be lean, and manufacturers find themselves challenged with quick deliveries and changes for the next job.
The economy has put a strain on all business and we are still facing the pressures of last year’s economic downturn. Customers are still cautious about not committing too much available cash as inventory. Cash is critical for the balance sheet and, in the past, slow-moving inventory has tied up valuable resources.”
“Some machine manufacturers basically stopped producing until orders were placed,” said Dennis Donovan, general manager for Centex Machining Inc., a full-service contract manufacturer in Round Rock, Texas. “Historically if we needed a machine that was a common size, they would have a few machines manufactured and in stock. We recently received a quote of 12 weeks for a machine delivery, which in the past has usually been only two to three weeks. The main trend I have seen is minimizing tooling and machine stock from the suppliers in order to keep inventory costs down.”
Even though OEMs are placing more pressure on manufacturers to lower costs, price often is not as much of a concern as the timeline of releasing a new device. After all, a much greater amount of capital is at risk if a competitor captures market share by launching a product first.
“Availability to the customer and marketplace is of utmost importance,” said David A. Cabral, president of Five Star Manufacturing Inc. in New Bedford, Mass., an OEM contract manufacturer of surgical instruments and medical devices. “Today, with competition from all over the globe, time and money play an important role, but getting your product to market before the competition may very well dictate how your business fares with a new launch.”
New Materials Require New Tools
Manufacturing a new part using tools and materials you know well and getting it to market faster is enough of a challenge without adding to the mix new materials whose properties are more complex. OEMs always are looking for better ways to make a product, which often results in machining and tooling challenges for the manufacturer as well as cost hurdles.
“Manufacturers are being asked to machine newer, more difficult materials that require more complicated programming and specialized tooling,” noted Bond. “There are some composite ceramic-titanium and hybrid glass materials hitting the market. Several new ceramic-based materials and composite materials are also being tested for advanced medical and dental applications.” These substances include nano-zirconia, sintered hydroxylapatite-zirconia, and similar composites. Being extremely dense and hard, these materials exceed the strengths of many traditional steels but closely resemble bone and tooth material.
As new materials such as PEEK (polyetheretherketone) become more popular, manufacturers must keep pace with new or better cutting tools, often made from newer, more exotic materials. “For some of our applications, we use diamond tools that are extremely hard and durable, but very costly,” explained Cabral. “Standard milling and turning cutters can also be refined for better chip development, faster cutting, and surface finishes to suit a company’s individual needs.” Refinements vary from the materials used in the tooling (material type, hardness, grain structure, metallurgical characteristics, etc.) to the configuration of the cutting edges.
Tooling also is becoming more complex because orthopedic implants and other products (such as cutting guides, targeting devices, and other multi-component assemblies) are increasingly more intricate in design and require very tight tolerances. When holding different materials the tooling often must be designed as a ”pocket” that encapsulates the part and eliminates any movement that would affect the tight tolerances.
“We continue to look at new technologies and how to do things better, faster, and with less cost,” added Cabral. “There are so many alternatives today regarding machine technologies, but many times all you have to do is change your tooling and programming to beat the competition and win the business.”
Bring in the Robots
For the most part, the highest operational expense for manufacturers is labor. To compete globally, North American manufacturers constantly are looking for ways to reduce the labor burden on their part costs. Robots can minimize handling of the part, increase more operations per machine, and increase spindle hour run times, which can help lower labor costs and improve quality.
“The slow job recovery in this country is a clear sign that customers are looking to technology versus manpower to help them earn a profit,” Bond told Orthopedic Design & Technology. “Companies are busy, but they are not hiring back employees.”
Methods Machine Tools offers five-axis capability for medical machining through its RoboDrill Med Cell, a pre-engineered, fully integrated production machining cell that automatically loads, unloads, and machines medical device parts. The RoboDrill Machining Center, manufactured by FANUC Ltd. (a Japanese company with U.S. headquarters in Chicago, Ill.), is the core of the Med Cell system. When integrated with a multi-axis rotary table and six-axis robot, the Med Cell offers full unattended five-axis machining capability, according to Methods Machine Tools.
“One of the biggest challenges in designing this system was making the cell sophisticated enough to be functional, but simple enough to be used by anyone,” said Bond. Parts that can be machined on the Med Cell include complex orthopedic implants made of stainless steel, cobalt-chrome or other demanding materials manufactured in relatively short-run quantities.
Adding robotics is not as complicated or costly as it may seem. “We are currently building a semi ‘off-the-shelf’ solution for a customer now,” Bond continued. “The diversity of parts does not allow for a complete plug-and-play solution; however, with minimal changes such as end of grippers for the robot, fixturing, and tooling, we can have an automated solution designed to meet most applications. With the more complex proprietary solutions we are occasionally asked to design, we still start with our base cell configurations and go from there to a complete integrated solution.”
New Technologies in Machining
There are many new spins on technology being pitched by equipment vendors, from pallet changers to lights-out manufacturing with camera monitoring to cutter and fixturing development. “Most vendors are pushing their machine’s ability to cut metal faster and more accurately, which is something we all want to brag about when we approach our customers,” said Cabral.
A hugely successful and popular machining process continues to be electrical discharge machining, or EDM. Traditionally it’s been considered to be relatively slow compared to traditional milling or turning. Even so, wire EDM is sometimes the best way to make implants and instruments.
“One way to improve the process is by using fully-sealed, stainless tilt/rotary tables that are programmable through the machine control,” said Bond. “By turning the part in the right orientation versus tilting the wire, better flushing is achieved, resulting in higher efficiency and cutting speeds.
Companies using this advanced EDM cutting technology range from OEM medical device makers to various sub-suppliers to the orthopedic OEMs. Rotary tables are commonly used to manufacture ‘cut blocks’, which are blocks of stainless steel with slots that accurately guide the surgeon’s saw blade when cutting through bone during knee replacement surgeries.”
Dry machining is gaining in popularity, especially in Europe. Coolant is a big expense in the machining industry, including disposal, but there are drawbacks to the process. Chemical substances contained in coolant are harmful to the environment and machine shop employees, thereby creating possible liability issues.
“Dry machining reduces our coolant expenses by about three to five percent,” said Matthew Dahms, president of Oak View Tool Company LLC in Columbia City, Ind., a manufacturer of carbide rotary and surgical cutting tools. “Europe has a jump on us in creating nanocomposite coatings that are very hard, resistant to cracking, adhere well to tool surfaces, stable at high temperatures, and generally compatible with the materials being machined. Coatings with different properties can also be made for various cutting conditions.”
Ultra-high-speed machining also is fairly new to most industries and will continue to grow because of the savings that can be realized through reduced cycle times when the right cutting tools are used with the right machinery, predicted Dahms. The rate of material removal can precisely be programmed to keep temperatures steady and dissipate heat with the chips. Automatic feed rate adjustment and automatic depth of cut help maintain material removal rate and minimize tool wear, heat build-up, and vibration. Intelligent side milling and slot milling (with programmer override) also provide the fastest possible cycle times. Overall, ultra-high-speed machining saves money by reducing programming time, energy consumption, coolant use, and labor costs, while increasing tool and spindle life, industry experts told ODT.
Some companies, such as Guhring Inc. of Brookfield, Wis., consistently are improving their cutting technologies to enhance the machining process. “The focus has been on better, faster, and more accuracy,” said Cabral. “They’ve done a nice job, especially with specialty drills and tooling for deep hole drilling.”
Guhring has developed a series of spiral flute, coolant-fed deep hole drills capable of drilling up to 30 times their diameter. Faster feed rates, experts said, reduce overall machining time. Some drills have an advanced flute geometry designed for optimal chip evacuation in deep hole drilling—the short, manageable chips are drawn easily out of the hole. Highly polished flutes help in smooth chip flow and a TiAlN (aluminum titanium nitride)-coated tip provides protection from abrasive materials, prolonging tool life. Some companies are using these drills to replace gun drilling operations because of their ability to handle deep hole applications and with no peck cycles, industry leaders noted.
Near net shape part manufacturing from powdered metal materials is an emerging manufacturing technology with multiple applications. “This unique additive manufacturing technology utilizes an electron beam melting re-solidification process that builds a fully dense part layer by layer from metal powder,” said Bond. “Each layer is melted to the exact geometry defined by the 3-D CAD model.”
Arcam AB Technology Resources for Manufacturing Inc. in Indianapolis, Ind., manufactures electron beam melting (EBM) equipment, which starts at about $750,000. “The Arcam technology provides cost-effective production of high volume press-fit implants, as well as one-off custom implants built with data derived from CT scans of individual patients,” said James B. Robinson, director of North American sales for Arcam. “Implants are built in a vacuum at elevated temperatures, resulting in stress-relieved implants with material properties better than casting and comparable to wrought material. For press-fit implants specifically, the EBM process lends itself to high volume production. Solid and porous sections of the implant are built in the same process step, eliminating the need for expensive secondary processes for applying other porous materials.”
Implants are being made commercially in Europe using this process. Adler Ortho Group, an Italian manufacturer, is utilizing Arcam’s technology to build orthopedic implants with full material properties and an integrated network structure for improved osteo-integration. “Although the process has yet to be approved by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], several EBM-manufactured implants have worked successfully in animals and the process looks very promising for human implants in the future,” said Bond.
Staying Competitive
With pricing pressures for machining and tooling companies certain to continue, medical manufacturers must find ways to reduce the price of their components. Companies also face pressure from countries such as China and India that are quickly developing tighter standards so they too can compete in the global medical device market. “These countries have no FDA regulations and the regulations they do have are much more lax,” indicated Bond. “To date, most of the components and instruments manufactured in those countries are for their domestic markets only. However, as we attempt to care for everyone in this country, products manufactured offshore may eventually end up here.”
Maintaining quality in a cost-effective, efficient manner is one of the best ways to assure competitiveness. “First and foremost, Oak View Tool Company is ISO 9001- and 13485-certified,” said Dahms. “This proves our dedication to quality products. We believe the FDA is investigating corrective and preventive actions. We have installed UniPoint to help with traceability, as well as JobBoss, etching lot numbers, etc. For validation we use verified software. Because the FDA wants confirmation that purchased products and services meet specified requirements, we have certification papers from all our outsourcing partners.”
Lean manufacturing, when implemented correctly, not only improves quality and competitiveness, but also increases the level of service manufacturers can provide to their customers. “When viewed from a process standpoint, lean can be just as valuable as a ‘new technology’ if you’ve never used it before,” said Cabral. “Anything you can do to improve your service is important, and machinery/technology is not the only way to achieve that. ‘New technologies’ is a relative term based on where a particular company is today versus what is available to them in the market. Technology can be cutter improvements, process improvements, machinery upgrades, or continuous improvements. In order to maintain our competitiveness, we must continually be up to date on all of these subjects and manage our business accordingly.”
One of the advantages of lean manufacturing is its simplicity and relatively low cost. Consider the following example of a lean philosophy at work: Setup of tooling and fixturing is an expensive and time-consuming (yet required) step that results in downtime. Cabral decided to film a setup to better understand why it took 90 minutes to complete. “When we reviewed the tape we found that 80 percent of the downtime was due to the machinist looking for tools (wrenches, vises, cutters, etc.), something we could easily correct,” he said. “Part of the task in evaluating the setup was to identify the ‘low-hanging fruit’ and how it could be eliminated to preserve machine up-time. This resulted in an overall setup time reduction of 69 percent, to 28 minutes.”
To be successful in a global market, it is imperative that medical device manufacturers reduce costs and waste throughout their organizations. Impacted by the recession, some employers are considering downsizing in an effort to maintain the bottom line. Others, such as Five Star Manufacturing, turn to lean practices to help them survive.
“In this kind of environment, incorporating automation is one of the best practices a company can adopt to stay globally competitive,” added Bond. “With our close partner FANUC Robotics America, we continue to develop automated machinery solutions to assist in the required reduction of part costs and quicker delivery. Machine tool builders work every day to advance the technology in an effort to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The most costly step is making no step toward automation and advanced cutting processes.”
Mark Crawford is a freelance writer based in Madison, Wisc. His clients range from startups to global manufacturing leaders. Contact him at mark.crawford@charter.net.
Controlling costs is key with machining and tooling.
Contributing Writer
Above is a complex 5-axis machined component—a spinal fixation plate. Photo courtesy of Methods Machine Tools Inc. |
“Certainly the trend in medical manufacturing is toward small-volume production,” said Steve Bond, national sales manager for Methods Machine Tools Inc. in Sudbury, Mass., a supplier of precision machine tools, accessories, and engineering support. “Lot sizes are much smaller now in an effort to be lean, and manufacturers find themselves challenged with quick deliveries and changes for the next job.
The economy has put a strain on all business and we are still facing the pressures of last year’s economic downturn. Customers are still cautious about not committing too much available cash as inventory. Cash is critical for the balance sheet and, in the past, slow-moving inventory has tied up valuable resources.”
“Some machine manufacturers basically stopped producing until orders were placed,” said Dennis Donovan, general manager for Centex Machining Inc., a full-service contract manufacturer in Round Rock, Texas. “Historically if we needed a machine that was a common size, they would have a few machines manufactured and in stock. We recently received a quote of 12 weeks for a machine delivery, which in the past has usually been only two to three weeks. The main trend I have seen is minimizing tooling and machine stock from the suppliers in order to keep inventory costs down.”
Even though OEMs are placing more pressure on manufacturers to lower costs, price often is not as much of a concern as the timeline of releasing a new device. After all, a much greater amount of capital is at risk if a competitor captures market share by launching a product first.
“Availability to the customer and marketplace is of utmost importance,” said David A. Cabral, president of Five Star Manufacturing Inc. in New Bedford, Mass., an OEM contract manufacturer of surgical instruments and medical devices. “Today, with competition from all over the globe, time and money play an important role, but getting your product to market before the competition may very well dictate how your business fares with a new launch.”
New Materials Require New Tools
Precise machining leads to cutting-edge orthopedic surgical tools. Photo courtesy of Oak View Tool Co. LLC. |
“Manufacturers are being asked to machine newer, more difficult materials that require more complicated programming and specialized tooling,” noted Bond. “There are some composite ceramic-titanium and hybrid glass materials hitting the market. Several new ceramic-based materials and composite materials are also being tested for advanced medical and dental applications.” These substances include nano-zirconia, sintered hydroxylapatite-zirconia, and similar composites. Being extremely dense and hard, these materials exceed the strengths of many traditional steels but closely resemble bone and tooth material.
As new materials such as PEEK (polyetheretherketone) become more popular, manufacturers must keep pace with new or better cutting tools, often made from newer, more exotic materials. “For some of our applications, we use diamond tools that are extremely hard and durable, but very costly,” explained Cabral. “Standard milling and turning cutters can also be refined for better chip development, faster cutting, and surface finishes to suit a company’s individual needs.” Refinements vary from the materials used in the tooling (material type, hardness, grain structure, metallurgical characteristics, etc.) to the configuration of the cutting edges.
Tooling also is becoming more complex because orthopedic implants and other products (such as cutting guides, targeting devices, and other multi-component assemblies) are increasingly more intricate in design and require very tight tolerances. When holding different materials the tooling often must be designed as a ”pocket” that encapsulates the part and eliminates any movement that would affect the tight tolerances.
“We continue to look at new technologies and how to do things better, faster, and with less cost,” added Cabral. “There are so many alternatives today regarding machine technologies, but many times all you have to do is change your tooling and programming to beat the competition and win the business.”
Bring in the Robots
For the most part, the highest operational expense for manufacturers is labor. To compete globally, North American manufacturers constantly are looking for ways to reduce the labor burden on their part costs. Robots can minimize handling of the part, increase more operations per machine, and increase spindle hour run times, which can help lower labor costs and improve quality.
“The slow job recovery in this country is a clear sign that customers are looking to technology versus manpower to help them earn a profit,” Bond told Orthopedic Design & Technology. “Companies are busy, but they are not hiring back employees.”
Methods Machine Tools offers five-axis capability for medical machining through its RoboDrill Med Cell, a pre-engineered, fully integrated production machining cell that automatically loads, unloads, and machines medical device parts. The RoboDrill Machining Center, manufactured by FANUC Ltd. (a Japanese company with U.S. headquarters in Chicago, Ill.), is the core of the Med Cell system. When integrated with a multi-axis rotary table and six-axis robot, the Med Cell offers full unattended five-axis machining capability, according to Methods Machine Tools.
“One of the biggest challenges in designing this system was making the cell sophisticated enough to be functional, but simple enough to be used by anyone,” said Bond. Parts that can be machined on the Med Cell include complex orthopedic implants made of stainless steel, cobalt-chrome or other demanding materials manufactured in relatively short-run quantities.
Adding robotics is not as complicated or costly as it may seem. “We are currently building a semi ‘off-the-shelf’ solution for a customer now,” Bond continued. “The diversity of parts does not allow for a complete plug-and-play solution; however, with minimal changes such as end of grippers for the robot, fixturing, and tooling, we can have an automated solution designed to meet most applications. With the more complex proprietary solutions we are occasionally asked to design, we still start with our base cell configurations and go from there to a complete integrated solution.”
New Technologies in Machining
There are many new spins on technology being pitched by equipment vendors, from pallet changers to lights-out manufacturing with camera monitoring to cutter and fixturing development. “Most vendors are pushing their machine’s ability to cut metal faster and more accurately, which is something we all want to brag about when we approach our customers,” said Cabral.
A hugely successful and popular machining process continues to be electrical discharge machining, or EDM. Traditionally it’s been considered to be relatively slow compared to traditional milling or turning. Even so, wire EDM is sometimes the best way to make implants and instruments.
“One way to improve the process is by using fully-sealed, stainless tilt/rotary tables that are programmable through the machine control,” said Bond. “By turning the part in the right orientation versus tilting the wire, better flushing is achieved, resulting in higher efficiency and cutting speeds.
Companies using this advanced EDM cutting technology range from OEM medical device makers to various sub-suppliers to the orthopedic OEMs. Rotary tables are commonly used to manufacture ‘cut blocks’, which are blocks of stainless steel with slots that accurately guide the surgeon’s saw blade when cutting through bone during knee replacement surgeries.”
Dry machining is gaining in popularity, especially in Europe. Coolant is a big expense in the machining industry, including disposal, but there are drawbacks to the process. Chemical substances contained in coolant are harmful to the environment and machine shop employees, thereby creating possible liability issues.
“Dry machining reduces our coolant expenses by about three to five percent,” said Matthew Dahms, president of Oak View Tool Company LLC in Columbia City, Ind., a manufacturer of carbide rotary and surgical cutting tools. “Europe has a jump on us in creating nanocomposite coatings that are very hard, resistant to cracking, adhere well to tool surfaces, stable at high temperatures, and generally compatible with the materials being machined. Coatings with different properties can also be made for various cutting conditions.”
Ultra-high-speed machining also is fairly new to most industries and will continue to grow because of the savings that can be realized through reduced cycle times when the right cutting tools are used with the right machinery, predicted Dahms. The rate of material removal can precisely be programmed to keep temperatures steady and dissipate heat with the chips. Automatic feed rate adjustment and automatic depth of cut help maintain material removal rate and minimize tool wear, heat build-up, and vibration. Intelligent side milling and slot milling (with programmer override) also provide the fastest possible cycle times. Overall, ultra-high-speed machining saves money by reducing programming time, energy consumption, coolant use, and labor costs, while increasing tool and spindle life, industry experts told ODT.
Some companies, such as Guhring Inc. of Brookfield, Wis., consistently are improving their cutting technologies to enhance the machining process. “The focus has been on better, faster, and more accuracy,” said Cabral. “They’ve done a nice job, especially with specialty drills and tooling for deep hole drilling.”
Guhring has developed a series of spiral flute, coolant-fed deep hole drills capable of drilling up to 30 times their diameter. Faster feed rates, experts said, reduce overall machining time. Some drills have an advanced flute geometry designed for optimal chip evacuation in deep hole drilling—the short, manageable chips are drawn easily out of the hole. Highly polished flutes help in smooth chip flow and a TiAlN (aluminum titanium nitride)-coated tip provides protection from abrasive materials, prolonging tool life. Some companies are using these drills to replace gun drilling operations because of their ability to handle deep hole applications and with no peck cycles, industry leaders noted.
Near net shape part manufacturing from powdered metal materials is an emerging manufacturing technology with multiple applications. “This unique additive manufacturing technology utilizes an electron beam melting re-solidification process that builds a fully dense part layer by layer from metal powder,” said Bond. “Each layer is melted to the exact geometry defined by the 3-D CAD model.”
Arcam AB Technology Resources for Manufacturing Inc. in Indianapolis, Ind., manufactures electron beam melting (EBM) equipment, which starts at about $750,000. “The Arcam technology provides cost-effective production of high volume press-fit implants, as well as one-off custom implants built with data derived from CT scans of individual patients,” said James B. Robinson, director of North American sales for Arcam. “Implants are built in a vacuum at elevated temperatures, resulting in stress-relieved implants with material properties better than casting and comparable to wrought material. For press-fit implants specifically, the EBM process lends itself to high volume production. Solid and porous sections of the implant are built in the same process step, eliminating the need for expensive secondary processes for applying other porous materials.”
Implants are being made commercially in Europe using this process. Adler Ortho Group, an Italian manufacturer, is utilizing Arcam’s technology to build orthopedic implants with full material properties and an integrated network structure for improved osteo-integration. “Although the process has yet to be approved by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], several EBM-manufactured implants have worked successfully in animals and the process looks very promising for human implants in the future,” said Bond.
Staying Competitive
With pricing pressures for machining and tooling companies certain to continue, medical manufacturers must find ways to reduce the price of their components. Companies also face pressure from countries such as China and India that are quickly developing tighter standards so they too can compete in the global medical device market. “These countries have no FDA regulations and the regulations they do have are much more lax,” indicated Bond. “To date, most of the components and instruments manufactured in those countries are for their domestic markets only. However, as we attempt to care for everyone in this country, products manufactured offshore may eventually end up here.”
Maintaining quality in a cost-effective, efficient manner is one of the best ways to assure competitiveness. “First and foremost, Oak View Tool Company is ISO 9001- and 13485-certified,” said Dahms. “This proves our dedication to quality products. We believe the FDA is investigating corrective and preventive actions. We have installed UniPoint to help with traceability, as well as JobBoss, etching lot numbers, etc. For validation we use verified software. Because the FDA wants confirmation that purchased products and services meet specified requirements, we have certification papers from all our outsourcing partners.”
Lean manufacturing, when implemented correctly, not only improves quality and competitiveness, but also increases the level of service manufacturers can provide to their customers. “When viewed from a process standpoint, lean can be just as valuable as a ‘new technology’ if you’ve never used it before,” said Cabral. “Anything you can do to improve your service is important, and machinery/technology is not the only way to achieve that. ‘New technologies’ is a relative term based on where a particular company is today versus what is available to them in the market. Technology can be cutter improvements, process improvements, machinery upgrades, or continuous improvements. In order to maintain our competitiveness, we must continually be up to date on all of these subjects and manage our business accordingly.”
One of the advantages of lean manufacturing is its simplicity and relatively low cost. Consider the following example of a lean philosophy at work: Setup of tooling and fixturing is an expensive and time-consuming (yet required) step that results in downtime. Cabral decided to film a setup to better understand why it took 90 minutes to complete. “When we reviewed the tape we found that 80 percent of the downtime was due to the machinist looking for tools (wrenches, vises, cutters, etc.), something we could easily correct,” he said. “Part of the task in evaluating the setup was to identify the ‘low-hanging fruit’ and how it could be eliminated to preserve machine up-time. This resulted in an overall setup time reduction of 69 percent, to 28 minutes.”
To be successful in a global market, it is imperative that medical device manufacturers reduce costs and waste throughout their organizations. Impacted by the recession, some employers are considering downsizing in an effort to maintain the bottom line. Others, such as Five Star Manufacturing, turn to lean practices to help them survive.
“In this kind of environment, incorporating automation is one of the best practices a company can adopt to stay globally competitive,” added Bond. “With our close partner FANUC Robotics America, we continue to develop automated machinery solutions to assist in the required reduction of part costs and quicker delivery. Machine tool builders work every day to advance the technology in an effort to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The most costly step is making no step toward automation and advanced cutting processes.”
Mark Crawford is a freelance writer based in Madison, Wisc. His clients range from startups to global manufacturing leaders. Contact him at mark.crawford@charter.net.