Okuma and Fanuc… a love story.

I have been biting at the bit to do our Ghetto shop tour #3 but the Robot has been delayed a bit. We have a new DH pedal coming that will be smaller in the body so perfect for the all mnt crowd as well.

This happy couple will work tirelessly through the nights producing hundreds of finished parts while we do other things.

 

This is just a small step into the right direction for us. We have always utilized automation but  this is our first fake employee and now we can only dream of ways to cut assembly and packaging times down.

 

Some cool stuff already is in reach for smaller firms, I hope we get to this stage soon-

 

Straitlines New Pedal is coming…

 

So we have been waiting to show off our new Wharehouse until the Robotic arm is set up for cool factor but we have grown and new toys are all around.

Dennis just finished programming the Fanuc Robot to load and unload our new AMP pedal into our new Okuma mill.  These two love birds are going to be making 180 pairs of finished pedals all on its own, programs are not written yet but we are shooting for 2 day cycles.

They will work 24/7 while we sleep at night and twirl in our office chairs in the daytime. God Bless modern Robotics.

The Amp Pedal stands for its intended use All Mountain – P for pedal, clever marketing yes but the design has been catered for the elite DH racing crowd as well. It will be identical to our Platform pedal currently offered using Igus bushings, double redundancy retention system and easy as pie to maintain and work on. 

The size and weight will be smaller and lighter than our Original free ride pedal and those who count grams will choose this pedal and the Racers as well for tighter cornering. 

 

Here is Our Mori NH400 loading a pallet of second opt pedals and a final opt on Jeff Lenosky’s old JLO pedals in need of some final thread tapping for the traction pins.

Our Excuse for being late and stuff!

Some Straitline stalkers may have noticed a lag in communication this past month or so and the very obvious fact that nothing is new from us as well!  This past few months have been very busy for us and we decided to bite the bullet and acquire two more buildings next door and a few new tech upgrades.

 

This pretty little robot is made by Fanuc and will be taking over our pedal and stem production working its greasy little ass of for us around the clock 24/7 365 days a year.

 

The Robot will be mated to our new Japanese machine made by Okuma, Mori Seiki’s main competitor in the high precision cnc market. Not to step away to our loyalties to the Mori Seiki machines but for the price we paid it was a must have. This new robot will work with the Okuma, a machine reputably know for its ability to hold high tolerances but lacking the speed of the Mori Seiki’s. But when you mate this machine with it’s own personal robot you have a production dream team that will now be the most productive machine we own. We are now fabricating a custom automated door and soon the two will get at it making pedals and stems and freeing up production for new things we have in our heads.

In order to keep up with the new dream team, we obviously need to process raw material faster and more efficiently as well. Welcome Our Canadian made HYD-MECH fully automated saw. I wasn’t too impressed with it at first until we wired it up and OMG –oh my god!- it is fast and efficient. No more standing around manning a saw anymore, the Hy-Mech is happiest alone doing what it does best, cutting. It could use some refinements on the coolant catch basins because the wet floor is a hazard but we will survive.

Next up is a Keep Greg out of the fun room cage. I am banned from entering into the death cage but they forgot to put a main gate on it so it is still easy for me to go in with sticky fingers. The mortorbikes are in the shot to make it look cooler because its just our inventory bay.

In between all the hard work we are always on the look out for fun to balance it out.

So, this Mori Seiki NH4000 is currently our secret weapon as it is still responsible for all of Straitline Components gear and bling. With our new machines in place and the two new warehouses renovated it’s go time. The down side was nothing new for the show season but we got some tricks up our sleeve.

If CNC gets you off, here is a video of the Mori NH Pallet cell utilizing its own robotic feeder to organize the jobs.

So there you have it, we have been busy in the lab with a pen and a pad, give me one more platinum album plaque, f**k rap you can have it back! That was actually Doctor Dre’s lyrics but I wish I was as smooth as him and have the creativity to tie that in with cnc machines.

 

Get ready for a ghetto tour #3 of the factory next month-ish when its all dialed in.