The Robert E. Morris Company helps American manufacturer refurbish and ship VTLs to China

  • Process: Turning
  • MGI Division: The Robert E. Morris Company
  • Outcome: Thanks to our expert refurbishment and foreign logistical teams, these Bullard VTLs are now 40 years old and still running productively in China ten years later.

 » Challenge

The Robert E. Morris Company is asked to help an American manufacturer recondition several 30 year-old Bullard VTLs, update them with new control systems, and ship them to a Chinese facility.

 » Solution

The Robert E. Morris team went to work on the VTLs in the customer’s factory. We fixed everything that was obviously wrong and made them look and work like new machines! We outfitted them with newer Fanuc controls dedicated to VTL operations. The VTLs were roughing out forgings for aircraft parts. We got all the paperwork in order for customs and rigged and crated the machines for barge travel. (Yes, there really are “slow boats to China”). One of our sales people babysat the machines as they were being unloaded from the barge in China on the Yangtze River. (Yes, it really is yellow). He worked with the Chinese dockworkers to facilitate the loading onto rail cars, trolleys, and finally into our customer’s plant in China where we uncrated and setup the machines for production.

 » Assessment

An excellent customer we’ve had for 20 years asked if we could recondition old Bullard VTLs, equip them with newer controls, and arrange all the logistics and setup in its new facility in China. Despite being 30 years old, the classic VTLs were in pretty good shape. They would require a good cleaning, regreasing and outfitting with new controls. The most challenging aspect would be getting them to China, but we had experience with this before so we understood the paperwork, customs, and the local ways of doing business. We knew what it would take to get the job done right and in a timely fashion.

 » Results

Thanks to our expert refurbishment and foreign logistical teams, these Bullard VTLs are now 40 years old and still running productively in China ten years later.

P.S. Because of our success with the Chinese project, this same customer asked us to help relocate several of their Okuma lathes and mills in Poland. The Robert E. Morris company helped move the entire air seals operating unit to Poland. We sent engineers to Poland for about a month to set up the machines and train the local workers on proper machine tool operation and Thinc control programming.

 

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Keywords: Okuma, VTL, Vertical Turning Lathe, China, Bullard, The Robert E. Morris Company.