Video: MSC Machine Guarding

That’s what MSC is all about we want to keep the operator safe all the time. The MSC supplier profile series sharing innovations in safety.

Hi, my name is Rebecca. I'm a category strategy manager at MSC and today we're here in Atlanta to talk to Larry Costigan. You may know him as Larry the Machinery Guy, all about machinery and machinery safety. So excited to be here.

This is our Vectrax CL series mill, and the key factor that is that it has an e-stop up there. Most milling machines do not have that.

Welcome to MSC Industrial, we’re Built To Make You Better. Right now we're located in Atlanta Georgia in the machining tool group. Not only do we encompass machinery, but we also encompass value-added services, tooling, cutting tools, safety equipment. It all comes out of here, out of Atlanta, and we customize that to the customer on their machines.

The idea of any machining process is always to prevent accidents before they happen. Make the operator cognizant of what's going on, make them think twice before they put their hands into something that's rotating or a dangerous situation.

Whenever you're operating machinery, there's always levels of protection. We also have what's called the chuck guard. That chuck guard that's on there, the saw guard that's on there, makes you very cognizant that there's a tool in there that's cutting and you want to stay away from.

You know, even though you have the correct PPE on—safety glasses, earplugs—you're safe, still chips are going find our way in there, hit you in the arm. This is going to protect you. This little simple safety shield is going to kick keep those chips from coming out and coming to get you and that's what you want.

Any customization you want we're doing it here. We are the only group that will not only will take the order, but consult with you in the beginning of the sales process. We look at what you want to do, make alternate suggestions or agree with you, and also offer additions to make that machine safer. That's what our job really boils down to, is safety first, required accuracy second, and production third. And we want to fulfill that requirement with new innovative ideas that are out there, and emerging technology to help you succeed and meet your requirements.

So as you move this up, that card is going to go with you, protecting you from kind of sliding your hands in there and getting caught. I'm a machinist by trade and if you've ever spoken to a machinist sometime they speak in a unique language that you have no idea what they're saying unless you're involved in that trade.

So for us to talk to another machinist, it's very easy. We know what they're talking about, they don't have to explain to us what they're trying to do, we already have a basic idea of what they're doing and where they want to go.

What happened about six months ago, we got a call customer is looking to innovate some processes in South Georgia. Two of us went down there to do an evaluation of what they had, what they were trying to do, what their goals and objectives were, and we came back with a solution.

When they were first started out on this project, it was taking them five days to make this part. We looked at the process, we were able to take that five days and bring that down to eight hours. We went down there, we trained them on the machine, we produced a part for them that was costing $26,000, and now we reduced that.

I see gigantic cost savings for that customer, and not only that, after we left the facility we got a call from the customer stating “Hey, I just got this hot job in and I was able to perform it in one day instead of waiting two weeks, and they didn’t produce one part, they produced three in case it happened again. They did another three parts they're ready to go.”

We're taking a unified approach to solve their problem, to increase their productivity, to keep the associates safe and we take that very seriously. It's our name that's on the line. If customers trust us in the beginning, they're going to come back to us again and again.

That was amazing. I hope you guys learned as much as I did today. Thank you to Larry in the machinery team. For more information about machinery and safety please visit https://www.mscdirect.com/betterMRO/.

Connect, optimize, and innovate at https://www.mscdirect.com/betterMRO/.