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When Jon Harrison, President of Kent, Washington-based Gorilla Enterprises purchased the company in 2004, he knew he wanted to find the
best technology on the market to automate as many processes as possible and expand as efficiently as possible. To achieve his goals, he purchased two new mills,
upgraded a third mill, brought in a 10 x 5 CNC router and implemented two seats of Surfware’s SURFCAM Powered by TrueMill.
“Our business is 99 percent aerospace,” says Harrison. “We do sheet metal and medium complexity 2 and 3-axis milling. We use SURFCAM and
TrueMill for sheet metal and milling.”
According to Harrison, sheet metal is an application nobody ever thinks of. “We can throw up a whole 10’ by 4’ sheet,” Harrison says, “and because of TrueMill, we don’t have to tool up for a hundred different sizes of holes or shapes. We just program it in. It keeps that constant engagement.
With TrueMill, our machines run lights out. By keeping a constant tool engagement, we never have to worry about a cutter breaking because it digs through too big a chunk. SURFCAM and TrueMill have allowed us to get more cutter life.”
On the milling side, Harrison says, TrueMill allowed the company to open up their milling department. “We don’t have a large crew and have to rely on the technology to be competitive,” Harrison explains. “We have 3-axis and have to compensate by using TrueMill.
SURFCAM with TrueMill option has allowed us to do more complex components. Before that we were using 2 D software. Now we’re doing surfacing and achieving higher throughput. We’re just now getting into a new product line for the Boeing 737 program because it has huge pocketing features, which is a great application for TrueMill.
“The entire software package has allowed us to make great gains in our marketability. As a small, new company, it’s hard to break into aerospace. SURFCAM with TrueMill has allowed us to grow beyond where I thought we‘d be right now.
“Because of our SURFCAM/TrueMill programming software we can turn our $100,000 equipment into something $300,000 equipment can do. Also, the software has allowed us to provide top quality with a smaller crew. All together, this means we can keep our rates much lower and pass the savings to the customer. SURFCAM with TrueMill option has allowed us to be competitive in aerospace.”
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