APT Manufacturing Solutions also takes great pride in our precision machining and production department. Utilizing various CNC mills and lathes, we continue to invest in the newest technology. Our CNC machines equipment includes 5 axis vertical and universal milling, horizontal milling, live tool milling while turning, turning equipment with multiple spindles (2) and multiple turrets (3), high speed drilling and tapping, high speed tool change, quick change fixturing, and 3D profiling. We take advantage of the newest technology on the market and are constantly looking for ways to make parts faster, easier, less expensive, and more consistent. This is a constant investment to which we see no end.
Our production department has many competitive advantages, and it begins in the quoting phase. We take the time to understand the part produced, tolerances required, and annual quantities so that we can ensure it is a part that fits our capabilities and one that we can be successful with. Our application engineers have decades of experience and really understand the complex intricacies of precision machining, making them highly reliable as a source to work with to review your part. Once awarded an order, our process engineering team finalizes the equipment, fixturing, and tooling, required to make a quality part. The part is programmed using Gibbs CAD/CAM software and moved into the production start-up phase.
Quality is paramount to the production process, and we’re comfortable with all levels of PPAP requirements and quality documentation, and want to do whatever is necessary to allow you to take comfort in our process that we will make consistently reliable parts for years to come. We utilize electronic inspection and control plans, as well as various high-tech CMM, vision and precision measurement methods to ensure the parts produced meet print tolerances.
We are looking for relationships…it is our goal to understand our customer, their processes, their forecasts, and function like a portion of their business so that we can work together like partners to ensure their production lines continue to flow with quality parts, produced on time. For many of our customers, we offer stocking programs to reduce the price per part with large volume manufacturing (fewer setups) and still ensure that parts are ready when you need them.
We specialize in low volume, high mix parts, an area that many manufacturers will avoid. We can do this because of our people, all of our machinists are highly skilled, setup-level machinists, and many of them have been through apprenticeship programs to make them an expert in their trade. These are not entry-level operators. Our process is built upon quick setup, common tooling, and low part runs. It’s how we’ve worked for years and puts us in position to remain profitable on low-volume runs, especially the ones that other companies will stay away from.
Because of our strengths in low volume part runs, quick changeover, and competent personnel, we routinely work with manufacturers to help them outsource smaller product lines or underperforming product groups. It’s not uncommon for a manufacturer that is built on a large scale production operation, to struggle to meet profitability on some of their underperforming products. Other manufacturers don’t see the value in replacing outdated machinery, and are looking to offload a family of parts. We can help with these projects – creating a project plan and assigning an implementation team to learn, quote, migrate, and implement these programs from your facility to ours, and eliminate the headaches that you currently have with producing low volume, high mix parts.
