When Pro Products, a supplier of precision mechanical components, had to produce 200 precision parts per day for a customer, there was no other option than working overtime on Saturday. “Initially, with four machines, two operators and two shifts per day, we thought we could achieve the 1000 parts per week,” said Joseph Hurley, President. In practice this turned out to be more difficult for the Wisconsin jobber than the theory on paper suggested.

The workload led to more rejections. “That forced us to work overtime every Saturday.” Pro Products has since installed a HALTER LoadAssistant on each of its DN Solutions Puma 2600SY CNC lathes, now the operators no longer need to work overtime. Joseph Hurley: “We have reduced our rejection rate by more than 50%. And because we work unmanned on average four hours a day, we now achieve our daily production target with one operator and two DN Solutions CNC machines.” He also sees productivity improving by 20 to even 100% with other orders thanks to the automation. The CNC operators are also happy with the HALTER CNC Automation robot cells: “We see that the robots really support us.” What particularly appeals to them is the ease with which they can switch the HALTER LoadAssistant to another product.

For Joseph Hurley, that was the initial reason to opt for this automation solution. “The starting point was flexibility and easy changeover. Our operators run two CNC machines at a time. Without the HALTER, we get 110% on productivity. Now, with a HALTER on one machine and the operator running the other, we get 160% on productivity. Return on Investment is less than one year. The Halter robot cell is a no-brainer for Pro Products LLC; we have installed our 4th unit!