PIQUA, Ohio—French Oil Mill Machinery Co. has added three new CNC machine tools to its plant in Piqua.
The custom hydraulic press and process equipment manufacturer said it added a bridge milling machine, a vertical turning lathe and a horizontal machining center. The new equipment replacing aging manual machines, advancing French Oil's capabilities and the sustainability of the firm, according to a company statement.
Cost of the investment wasn't disclosed.
"This investment in our future is an exciting achievement for our company, which gives me great pride and will benefit our customers, our employees and our community," said Chairman and CEO Daniel French. "As a growing, world class organization that focuses on quality, innovation and continuous improvement, we have extended these values past our proprietary products and also applied them to the tools we use in our manufacturing processes."
The new five face CNC bridge milling center features a high-speed spindle and a 90-degree, two-speed geared head with programmable indexing increments. The mill is capable of machining parts up to 44,000 pounds.
French also added a new live tool CNC vertical turning lathe. The firm said the lathe features a programmable fourth axis enabling French to mill and drill on the machine and has a table load capacity of 11,000 pounds.
The third machine, a new CNC horizontal machining center, features a 15,000 RPM high-speed machining controller, dual pallets and a full fourth axis 360-degree programmable rotary table.
French Oil also invested in new programming software and tooling for the three new machines.
The family owned firm said the investment is a "clear indication of French's commitment to maintaining their domestic manufacturing, delivering high quality American-made products to their customers around the world."
It added that the new technology will help French Oil in recruiting new hires when many manufacturers are struggling to fill open positions because of a work force skills gap in the industry.