Corridor machine shops adapt to tech changes

While technology has moved into just about field of our business and personal lives, the machine shop industry, in many ways, has remained steadfast with keeping to more manual methods of machine repair.

'The machine work is cut and dried, it's all hand-operation,” said Tracy Chappell, a machinist and interim partner at Hydra Fab LLC in Hiawatha. 'We're not pushing buttons. We couldn't do the repair side (of our business) with a man-made machine. 'Every job is different - many of them have to do something custom” to the machine.

Or as Randy Hochstedler, co-owner of D&R Engines and Machines Inc. in Marion, said, machines help the work process but cannot replace manual labor.

But technology 'has it helped in rebuilding engines,” Hochstedler added. 'We feel it helps control our machine work process to build a better product.”

In addition to possibly slowing down work, cost is also an issue. Chappell said whether to adapt to new technology ultimately comes down to the shop needing it, which is usually indicated by its size - as a shop increases its size, the higher the need is for the machines to follow suit.

'For now, the issue is cost,” said Chappell, who has worked in the machine shop since it opened in February. 'We're growing and just starting out, it's more of a pay-as-you-go system right now.”

Mark Koeppen, manager of Sadler Machine Co. in Cedar Rapids, has been with his company since 1988 and said that while technology upgrades are constantly offered, it's important to look at how it will affect the bigger picture.”

The three shops range in repairs from things such as tractors to car rear ends and axles.

Adapting tools

Hochstedler said the rise in technology has affected his business, but in an unexpected fashion. Because newer vehicles are being built to last longer, the car repair side of D&R Engines would be unsteady had it not seen a flow of vintage cars that still need work.

'In the '70s and '80s, cars would run for 100,000 miles and the engines would need to be rebuilt,” he said. 'Now engines in the new vehicles can run 200,000 miles before needing cylinder heads or engines rebuilt.”

Depending on the machine, any upgrade in machine technology can range from $10 for a smaller tool to more than $100,000 for a larger machine. But they have adapted some smaller tools to help with things such as cutting.

'I would say the biggest benefits in technology we have is our cylinder head area (cutting system),” Hochstedler said. 'We use a Sunnen multi-angle, one-pass cutter system to set all the valve seats to the exact same depth ...

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'We used to have to grind the valve angles in one at a time, which increased the amount of time on each job.”

But Koeppen said the cost of some of those larger machines can create benefits that make that price tag worthwhile.

'It helps cutting your time down, it helps produce the product faster and, in some instances, it makes it a better product for the customer,” he said.

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