Success Stories: Benet Laboratories
Benet Laboratories’ mission is to support the warfighter with high quality weapon systems and components as soon as they can be delivered. The 60MM Mortar System is effective, lightweight, and portable — a practical system for the terrain in Afghanistan. Because of its applicability, there is high demand for its manufacture. Expedited delivery to the troops is paramount. In an effort to reduce the production cost and times, the U.S. Army’s Watervliet Arsenal initiated a Lean Effort program for the system; one of the program’s goals was to optimize the CNC programs used to manufacture the system Handle using TWS’ Production Module 3D software.
The Part
The 60MM Mortar System Handle houses a firing safety mechanism and is manufactured from 6061 Aluminum due to the material’s light weight. However, if the weapon is dropped and the Handle takes the brunt of the load, it may fracture. For this reason, spares must be manufactured along with complete new systems.
The Approach
- Benet Laboratories engineers attend software training
- 60MM Mortar System Handle optimized in Production Module 3D by Benet Laboratories engineers
The Results
- Machining cycle time reduced by 20%
- Optimized toolpath in use
- All time-critical component CNC programs for Watervliet Arsenal to be optimized in Production Module by Benet Labs