Utilizing CNC Machining for Casting and Forgings in the Valve Industry
CNC machining of castings and forgings for the valve industry is utilization of CNC Lathes and CNC Mills (and other support equipment) to remove material to meet the tight tolerance requirements of the valve industry. Typically castings and forgings are used as valve bodies but can be used for other components of a valve assembly. Valves utilizing cast and forged valve bodies can include various types of valves including: ball valves, butterfly valves, gate valves, check valves, wafer valves and diaphragm valves. These valves can be used in various applications including: defense, food and beverage, fluid control, air control, oil and power, water and/or wastewater, etc.
For over 50 years Ripley Machine – an ISO 9001 certified company - has been an industry leader when it comes to the machining of components for the valve industry. Our team has experience and an understanding of the industry and how the components that we are machining function. This enables us to work closely with our customers to ensure that we are manufacturing their products in an efficient manner and to the utmost quality.
As the years have passed, we have invested in improving our processes, equipment and technology to ensure that we are able to better serve our customers. We recently made a large investment in a Kitamura HX-300iG Horizontal CNC Mill with pallet changing. This investment is already allowing us to better serve our customers in the valve industry.
Within the first month of the purchase, we changed how we processed a component for a wafer style check valve. We used to process the part in four operations on four different machines. One of the operations required extensive handling. With the new equipment, we were able to process the entire part in one operation. The machine time was greatly reduced and with pallet changing, all handling of the part is done while the machine is running. We were able to work with our customer to reduce the cost of the part by 36% despite recent material increases.
Our new equipment allowed us to take on a new project for an oil and gas valve OEM that we previously wouldn’t have been able to be competitive with. The project required us to mill a slot in a cast valve body with order quantities exceeding 10,000pcs. We were able to use our Chick Tombstone vices to hold 8 parts at once to quickly mill these and we utilized our pallet changer to have our operator changing out parts while the machine was milling. The efficiency of our machining on our new equipment allowed us to provide the part at a cost significantly lower than we ever would have been able to before the investment. This allowed our company to earn a new part and helped our customer to reduce cost and lead time for their product. A true win-win!
These are just two examples of how we have utilized our new equipment to serve our customers. We have been able to offer reduced pricing as well as take on new projects for several of our customers already and we are ready to do such for more customers. If you are in need of production milled valve components, we encourage you to request a quote today!
