Fixturing Expertise Helped Growth

Alan Runge sets up one of six Chevalier Smart-B1224II Smart Grinders operated by Leading Edge.

Gaines had “zero customers” when he opened his company’s doors, he recalls. “I started out calling local people and telling them we do commercial grinding,” he says, “but in the beginning people were more interested in my skills in tool design, so I had some customers who found me and asked if I’d do tooling for them. We needed the cash flow, so I agreed. In any case, I didn’t have enough equipment to do a lot of production, but I had the equipment necessary to do the tooling, We started buying at least one new machine a year, which has worked out well for us.”

Charmilles Cut 20 P

Because Leading Edge Turbine Corp is principally a grinding house, he bought a Charmilles wire EDM mainly to help him produce his high-density fixtures.

“I looked around at a variety of EDMs,” he says, “but the Charmilles had conversational programming and an integrated CAM package, which allows us to design parts right on the controller or download an IGES or DXF file. Originally I bought the machine to help make my holding fixtures, but once I saw its accuracy capability, I began thinking beyond that. We use hard gauges to check our parts, so now we use the Charmilles to make those. I also discovered some benefits when I started producing turbine blades and vanes. I found that I was able to cut some features that are extremely difficult to grind because of accessibility. The Charmilles is now a high-quality and integral part of our production process.”

Gaines selected both the Charmilles and the Chevaliers, partly because of the quality of the equipment, but also because of the proximity of their sales and service facilities. “Our rep for Charmilles is Hans Baumgartner, who works for Infinity Machine Tool, a half hour away in Anaheim, California,” he says. “Our rep for the Chevaliers is John Chang, who works out of Chevalier U.S. headquarters, in nearby Santa Fe Springs. We get excellent service from both companies, which is exactly what we want. We can’t afford to have our machines down because of slow service.”

More Growth

Even after buying his own building two years ago, Gaines is once more faced with the prospect of having to move. “We have a huge new, 200,000-part order for turbo charger components for diesel engines,” he says. “They’re asking us if everything goes as planned, and they double the order, would we be willing to move to a larger facility. Basically, I’ve said, ‘Well, let’s see how it goes.’ At the moment we’re still in the engineering stage, completing our tooling and going through the first article stage. As it stands, we can handle this order in this facility by adding more shifts and people.”

Gaines seems both pleased and a little surprised at his business successs, but he hasn’t let it go to his head. “I’m a pragmatic individual,” he says, “so I take things slow and carefully. I don’t want to over extend.” Still, in spite of how busy his shop is, he is also looking to the future and his goal is ambitious. “I would like to dominate the profile grinding of turbine blades, at least in the Western States,” he says. “It’s a niche market, but it’s a great niche that has done well by us.”