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APC Helps Fred Ricci Tool Company Carve Out Success "With the clean power and non-fluctuating voltage, cutting speeds are a constant .200 inches per
minute. The savings are about an hour and a half per day of productivity."
Frank Ricci
President
Fred Ricci Tool Co.
"Fred Ricci Tool Co. is based in Cranston, Rhode Island, where we build
high quality stamping tools, dies and molds to make insignias, lapel pins,
military medals, medallions, badges, jewelry, and trophies. We are located
in a building consisting of 10 units. We're Unit #10; the last one on the
totem pole. The main power feed is about 200 feet away with only 600 amps
(3-phase) for the entire building. I use about 175-200 amps. The rest is
divided among the other nine units. Needless to say, there is a serious
power drain before I get my power.
"The type of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machinery we use is called
Wire EDM (electrical discharge machining). The process uses brass wire .010
thousands of an inch in diameter, which is about 2 times the thickness of
the hair on your head. An electrical charge flows through the brass wire and
discharges the electrical pulse at high frequencies, cutting hardened steel
from .250 of an inch to 7 inches thick. The wire follows a tool path created
by our CAD/CAM systems and is fed through a start hole in the center of the
steel. It erodes the material away as it follows the tool path to create the
desired design with accuracies of .0002 tenths of an inch; incredible
precision.
Power Supply Can't Keep Up
"When we first moved to this location 2 years ago, the machinery was running
at peak performance. As time went on, we expanded, added more equipment, and
the entire industrial area grew. I noticed the cutting speeds of our
machinery slowing and we tried everything to correct it, including replacing
all the wiring and the recalibration of the inner power supplies. The
voltage was varying but within the 5 percent parameter. At this point, I
knew I had done everything I could to my machinery.
"I contacted APC Global Services. They sent in a highly skilled electrical
and electronic engineer, and we hooked up a real-time monitor to the main
input at the machine and within a few seconds we knew what was happening. My
power supply was a mess. The sine waves were inverting, voltage spikes were
occurring, the sine wave was crossing over zero twice in one cycle and every
time a person turned on a machine, the top of the wave flattened. Mystery
solved: I needed to clean up my power.
APC Global Services Provides a Solution "APC Global Services suggested APC's new Silcon® DP300E unit, which offered
the highest efficiency and lowest operating costs, for our Wire EDM machines. It has only been in our shop for a month and has functioned far
beyond my expectations. The Silcon DP300E brought us back to 100 percent
efficiency. Our machinery cuts at a speed calculated by inches per minute.
The average cutting speed of the machinery not using the Silcon was .150 inches per minute. With the clean power and non-fluctuating voltage, cutting
speeds are a constant .200 inches per minute. The savings are about an hourand a half per day of productivity.
APC Provides Bridge to New Technology "System availability is mission-critical for us. Since we are 100 percent
computer dependent, we require constant uptime or else nothing gets done. When my dad, Alfred Ricci, was in the trade, all he needed was a 100-watt
light bulb, a good set of hand files, a hammer and chisel to make cutter dies and punches. Today, without the new technology, our company would not
exist. APC gives us clean power and enough battery time to safely shut down
all of the computers in case of a power failure or surges.
"When our Solid Modeling designers spend 8-10 hours drawing a 2-D or 3-D model on very expensive workstations, the last thing they need to worry
about are the computers failing due to power outages or spikes. Not only
would the designer lose the drawing and have to do the job twice, but incidents like that are expensive and lower the employee morale.
Additional Cost Savings "APC has saved the day for us many times. Recently, we had a power outage
and the lights flickered 3 or 4 times until the power went completely out.
Our Silcon was running at 75 to 80 percent capacity and the Wire EDM machine
was running full power, and it didn't even flutter. According to the display, I had about fifteen minutes of full power available just running
off the batteries, more than enough time to shut down and not lose the
machine home position. Then the lights began flickering again, the power came back on and the machine continued cutting at full power. It was like
the power never went out. If we had lost the machine zero point, the part would have been scraped costing us $1,500 to replace, not to mention
upsetting the customer with delays in shipment.
"On another occasion, we suffered a total outage and a severe voltage spike
when a truck hit a utility pole. This cost us $5,000 for new power supply boards and two days of downtime, costing approximately $3,500 of
unproductive time. When our CNC equipment loses power, the machine becomes
mis-aligned requiring an average of 1/2 to 1 hour per machine to re-align,
costing us another $500 of unproductive time.
The Value of an APC Relationship "APC has always been a part of our business. I have an electronics degree
and always knew what a voltage spike and outage could do to electronic
equipment. Before the power problem that brought us the Silcon, APC protected all of our CAD/CAM workstations, telephone system, accounting
server, and our high precision scanning equipment. Every unit has its own Smart-UPS®, ranging from a 200 for the telephone system to 700 for the
workstations.
"I have only called tech support once in 5 years, and I feel this speaks for
itself as far as the quality and the reliability of APC products. Our company is 100 percent committed to APC for its dependability to protect our
electronic equipment. Now, nothing is plugged in unless APC is protecting it."
--09/07/99 |
