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Nonmetallic part maker used energy industry downturn to improve CAM proficiencies and become an even more robust supplier.
Until the mid-'90s Precision Fluorocarbon Inc. (PFI; Tomball.TX) was a nonmetallic machining business primarily serving the energy marketplace-the oil & gas industry in particular. After a severe downturn hit the oil business, the company was faced with the problem/opportunity of translating its unique competencies into other fields.
The company's nonmetallic CNC machining proficiencies based on the advanced capabilities of its CAM software, Mastercam from CNC Software (Tolland, CT), allowed it to make significant inroads into other markets by solving challenging problems. When the oil field business came back in 2010, PFI was an even more robust business and resumed its leadership position in that field.
Nonmetallic Machine Shop
One of the first product lines the company began manufacturing shortly after it was founded by Howard Frank in 1989, was compression molded PTFE (PolyTetraFluoroEthylene) stock shapes, custom-machined components and thermally formed diaphragms for air-operated pumps. Today, the company still molds stock engineering thermoplastic shapes that are sold to other manufacturers. However, the bulk of its molding output is consumed internally and used for machining engineered plastic components.
Howards son, Steve Frank, vice president of PFI, said "We do a tremendous amount of high-performance, high-precision machining of a variety of materials including PTFE, PEEK [PolyEtherEtherKetone], nylon, polypropylene, UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight plastic], and even some composite materials that aren't considered plastics per se."
By 1998, the company's rudimentary CAM programming software would not allow Frank and a recently hired programmer to generate programs fast enough to keep pace with the demand for machined plastic components, particularly for the growing oil field customer base. Together, they surveyed the CAD/CAM market, closely evaluated three products and chose Mastercam. Today the company uses no manual machines. Two seats of Mastercam X7 Mill, two ofX7 Lathe along with Mastercam Solids support a sophisticated manufacturing operation involving nearly 50 employees working two shifts and 26 CNC machines-lathes and three-, fourand five-axis CNC mills.
"Over the years, this decision to standardize on Mastercam has proven to be of tremendous benefit to our company,"...