Need to Focus on Making Chips? MSC Metalworking Pros Can Help Drive Productivity

For machine shops, making money is all about making chips. Meeting customer deadlines and producing finished workpieces requires CNC equipment to keep running—preferably at peak performance levels.

When delayed maintenance or malfunctions force a prolonged shutdown, business owners continue to rack up costs but lose a source of revenue to cover them. Marketplace challenges such as inflation, fueled partly by tariffs and supply-chain disruptions, exacerbate the damage for businesses that are short-staffed because fewer entry-level employees are available to replace experienced veterans as they retire.

MSC Industrial Supply Co. is ready to help, with a team of experienced metalworking specialists who can not only offer advice on maximizing machine performance and taking advantage of new technologies but also work to minimize downtime.

Available services range from coating and grinding to metrology equipment calibration and repair, along with metalworking fluids management. Thanks to the purchase of Tru-Edge, a cutting-tool firm with clients in industries from aerospace to auto manufacturing, MSC can even design and produce custom tools for manufacturers with unique needs.

“We’ve built these services to help manufacturers maintain competitiveness during any type of market, whether they’re facing economic pressures or competitive pressures,” says Dr. Michael Gomez, principal research and development engineer with MSC. “Many of our specialists have come from machine shops; they’re people who have lived and breathed machining and manufacturing for a very long time and have a tremendous amount of knowledge at their fingertips.”

MSC’s proprietary offerings include the Accupro^® ST Series, a 3-piece milling assembly that comes pre-set, pre-balanced and ready to use; and MillMax^®, which measures the vibration response of a cutting tool-holder-machine combination. Measurements are funneled into a dashboard that maps out regions of stable cutting and identifies optimal machining parameters.  

“It’s one of the ways that MSC helps customers do more with less,” Gomez explains. “One MillMax^® test, on average, delivers about 80 hours of production capacity back to a customer per year, and it only takes about 15 minutes.”

Because CNC machines are large capital investments, shops are reluctant to shut them down, Gomez acknowledges. Recouping the investment requires operating the machines as much as possible.

“In this case, however, we’re asking you to stop for about 15 minutes and what you get in return is about two weeks of extra time,” he says. “It’s a really, really unique value proposition.”

Custom-Fit Tools

Along with in-house services, MSC has teamed with external companies to help its customers.

One such partnership, with software provider Autodesk, enables MSC specialists to leverage the firm’s Fusion computer-assisted design tools to help customers develop potential programming, machining and toolpath optimization strategies, Gomez explains.

“It’s another differentiating piece of technology that we’re putting into the hands of our metalworking specialists that will allow them to help drive productivity at the spindle,” he says.

Another partnership, with Transcat, provides calibration and repair of testing and measurement equipment. Options range from on-site work to shipping tools to one of Transcat’s accredited facilities for maintenance.