VMC Helps Manufacturer Bring Product to Market Three Years Ahead of Schedule
Outsourcing molds to make a new boat would’ve been expensive and slow, so Hudson Boat Works acquired a Datron MLCube VMC capable of machining large molds in house to slash time from its projected product launch.
Share
Hudson Boat Works was experiencing growing pains. The official boat manufacturer for the Canadian national rowing team had plans to build a new line of boats, but the projected leadtime would be three years in the making: It had neither the machining capacity nor the floorspace to make the molds necessary to create the Ultimate Super Predator (USP) boat’s carbon fiber parts.
The slow turnaround time and the high costs of outsourcing spurred the shop to find a better solution. An MLCube vertical machining center from Datron Dynamics fit the bill. It features a 60- by 40-inch machining area and a 95- by 90- by 77-inch footprint—enough space to accommodate the shop’s largest mold model, yet small enough to fit in the 200-square-foot area on the shop floor that Hudson had allocated for such a machine.
In just over a year, the company was able to make its own molds and move into making production parts on the same machine, ultimately bringing its product to market three years ahead of schedule.
Related Content
-
DN Solutions America Unveils Impressive Chicago Technical Center at IMTS 2024
New tech center is serving as a cutting-edge showroom and a technological hub for advanced machining applications.
-
The Cut Scene: The Finer Details of Large-Format Machining
Small details and features can have an outsized impact on large parts, such as Barbco’s collapsible utility drill head.
-
Mazak VMC Provides Versatile Machining of Complex Parts
The VC-Ez 20X vertical machining center features a 25-hp 12,000-rpm CAT-40 spindle with a 30-tool-magazine automatic tool changer.