Innovative Machine Specialists, Inc. is a job shop located in Marshfield, Wisconsin, that helps customers attain their manufacturing goals by being a one-stop shop for engineering, machining, fabricating, and assembly. They make a lot of one-off parts and primarily do high-mix, low-volume work.
After years of working for another job shop in town, Bernard Martin and Brian Schmoll saw the demand for more work and started Innovative Machine Specialists in 1996. The duo attended a trade show to explore which machine brand to start their business with and said the ease and versatility of the Milltronics control stood out.
“Milltronics seemed to be very decent programming machines. The versatility – how quick it was to switch over to do one or two pieces to possibly 50 or 100 pieces,” said Schmoll.
With a new and growing shop, Milltronics’ conversational programming shortened the learning curve for inexperienced machinists. The conversational control is intuitive and prompts the user through the programming process. It also offers features that increase efficiency, such as ChipBoss™, MotionBoss™ and DXF & IGES File Import.
“I really find the conversational programming really easy in the aspect that I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the G- and M-code, so it was really nice to be able to just, okay, call up a drill program, program some holes, and mill some lines to start,” recalled Chris Nikolai, Innovative mill programmer/operator.
Travis Engelberth (lathe department) explained how even machinists who are familiar with G-code will find that Milltronics’ control helps them make parts quicker and easier.
“I always look at it this way: a Milltronics just takes all the G-codes you need to know and puts it on a page where you can read it,” said Engelberth. “So if I am doing a threading cycle or whatever I don’t have to remember all the different letters. It will ask me specifically what depth of thread, what pitch of thread, all that, and you just put it in the page and keep going.”
Nikolai highlighted the graphics display on the Milltronics control, which previews how the machine will cut the part and helps ensure that the part will come out as desired.
“The graphics where you can see what the tool paths are actually doing, and then you can actually go ahead and program in that stock size, and you can see how that material is getting removed,” detailed Nikolai. “It gives you that extra confidence once you get it programmed, and you can see it in the graphics, and it looks like what the part you want to make is.”
Innovative was happy with their initial machine choice. As they’ve grown, the company has invested in over 20 Milltronics mills and lathes, many of which are still making chips after 20-plus years.
Those machines include:
“They’re rigid, they’re heavy machines, and they last,” exclaimed Nikolai.
The Innovative team praised Milltronics for providing excellent support and service to keep them running all these years. In addition to the robust support and service department that Milltronics offers, Milltronics also has a wide network of distributors that customers can rely on for support. Innovative cherishes their strong relationship with Milltronics’ Wisconsin distributor, Concept Advanced Manufacturing Solutions.
“They have a good service team that can come in and service the machines. Parts are readily available, and you can be up and running in a matter of, a lot of times, a couple hours.”
With rigid machines built for the long haul, a user-friendly control that shortens the learning curve and increases efficiency, and a responsive support and service team they can count on, Innovative has found success with Milltronics.
“(Milltronics) machines are running great, and they’re easy to program. (We) collaborate with all our employees, and they also agree that they’re a nice machine to program and set up and run,” explained Schmoll.
Martin added, “We have competing mills and lathes that do similar work, but we always hear back (from employees) that the Milltronics programming and setup is always easier and quicker than the competing equipment we have in our own shop.”
