Nick Sluterbeck is the fourth generation to work in his family’s Clayton, Ohio-based business, Sluterbeck Tool Co. Started by Nick’s great-grandfather in the 2-car garage of his home in 1953, the versatile tool & die company now occupies a modern, 12,000 square foot facility. Here they turn out one-offs, prototypes and full production runs of a variety of parts for automotive, medical and specialty machine OEMs.

Sluterbeck’s CNC machining equipment includes two Okuma machines purchased from Gosiger, Inc. When the company wished to expand its operations this year, they discussed their requirements and equipment options with Gosiger and decided on a Hardinge GX 1000 Vertical Machining Center retrofitted with an Okuma THINC OSP control.

A major factor in Sluterbeck’s decision to purchase the Hardinge machine was the OSP control. According to Nick,

“Frankly, we were a bit skeptical of the Hardinge machine at first, but we’ve been working it hard since it was installed in January and it’s been performing very well. The machine is fast, reliable and greatly reduces setup and run times. It’s become one of our workhorse machines running everything from 1-to 10 part runs to production runs of 800 pieces. I think it’s a good fit for our needs."

“We have the OSP on our Okuma machines, so it was great to have the same system on this one. It made it quick and easy to get up and running. One of the things we like is that our Mastercam programs load up easily into the OSP control. Plus it has great storage capacity to hold multiple, long parts programs. Another plus is that Gosiger takes good care of us. If we have a question or a problem they respond quickly.”

If you’d like to learn more about the Hardinge GX 1000 VMC retrofitted with the Okuma THINC OSP control, contact Gosiger today. And be sure to see all of the latest Gosiger High Volume and Automation productivity solutions in booth S-9266 at IMTS 2012.