EMR Corporation in Phoenix, Arizona, specializes in the engineering and manufacturing of two-way radio equipment for Homeland Security, police, and fire. With first responders relying on this equipment to communicate, EMR takes pride in getting high-quality products to their customers quickly. The team mostly machines aluminum, but also works with brass and stainless steel.
EMR originally manufactured parts with an old Bridgeport and hand-turned machines. As production ramped up, EMR decided it was time to purchase their first CNC machine. They opted for a used Milltronics Partner 1G, which they bought on eBay. It didn’t work upon arrival. General manager Steven Broscious credits the Milltronics service team for helping him fix their used machining center.
“Milltronics was very helpful with me rebuilding that machine. I was on the phone with a lot of the techs. They helped me get the machine up and running. These guys were just phenomenal service, and that’s why I’ve continued to buy Milltronics machines,” said Broscious.
Once the Partner 1G was running, EMR was thrilled with the results.
“It was a very good machine. We had it for a long time, and it did what we needed to do,” noted Broscious.
EMR now owns several Milltronics machines — including multiple VM16s and a newer VM4222IL machining center — and has seen improved production times. While they can do large-batch work, most of the company’s jobs are batches of 10 or less. Big or small, the flexibility of Milltronics enables EMR to deliver high-quality parts regardless of batch size.
“Not very many people can actually make their own parts from scratch and be able to facilitate it, process it, and get it out the door as fast as what we can do,” said EMR Technician Manager Rod DeFoor, who added that Milltronics has “really helped get us in a high-performance manufacturing area.”
As a company that hires from within and trains their own people, EMR highlighted the ease of the Milltronics control as a major advantage.
“A lot of guys we have come in to work at EMR do not have experience, so teaching novice machinists to come in and run these machines is relatively easy,” said Broscious.
Shop Manager Michael Elliot echoed that sentiment.
“I found that the newer the control, the more user friendly it is and the faster you can do simple tasks on it. The ease of uploading programs, editing programs in there, the machine’s simple to set up. It’s just very user-friendly,” said Elliot.
From excellent service to high-quality machining capability to the user-friendly control, EMR is happy to be a member of the Milltronics family.
“It’s been great. These guys have really stood behind their product for the 20-plus years that we’ve been using them. We bought a ton of machines, and we’ll probably buy a few more,” concluded Broscious.
“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.”
