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NAMCO was founded in 1976 to serve the growing demand for precision machine components, custom gears and transmission technology.
With locations in Edmonton, Canada, and Chardon, Ohio, the company employs more than 75 skilled workers who manufacture reliable and economical products for customers in the paper, oil & gas, mining, and other industries. Since 2019, NAMCO has now invested in 15 CNC machines from DMG MORI, including a DMC 125 FD duoBLOCK for gear milling with gearMILL and two TAIYO KOKI machines for grinding.
From engineering and design of the products to complete manufacturing, assembly and extensive testing procedures, NAMCO combines the entire process chain under one roof. “In this way, we have quality completely in our own hands and can react flexibly to the respective demand,” explains Bernard Vukovic, Managing Director of NAMCO. He adds that the range of services includes both gears produced in large series and individual special solutions. “The challenge is to deliver on time and offer competitive prices.”
To be competitive on the production side, NAMCO relies on state-of-the-art CNC technology from DMG MORI. Bernard Vukovic explains the high investment volume in the past three years with the need to expand production capability: “On one hand, we need innovative machining technologies to manufacture efficiently and in the required quality, and on the other hand, it was a matter of increasing capacity.” In DMG MORI, they found a strong and reliable partner to achieve these goals, he said. “The versatile CNC machines allow us to manufacture even more products economically.”
The versatility of DMG MORI machines is reflected in one of NAMCO’s core areas, gear cutting. There, the team relies on a DMC 125 FD duoBLOCK with the exclusive DMG MORI gearMILL gear cutting software. “Especially for large gears, prototypes and special solutions, we have a very effective solution on our shop floor,” finds Bernard Vukovic. The mill & turn center with pallet changer allows setup to take place during machining and is designed for high-precision complete machining of rotationally symmetrical components up to ø 1,250 mm in diameter – including 5-axis milling and turning. Since everything is done in one setup, errors due to manual reclamping operations are eliminated.
With gearMILL, technology integration on the DMC 125 FD duoBLOCK goes one step further. gearMILL enables soft and hard machining on one machine and offers quality inspection during the process. In this way, different gears can be produced, and in qualities up to DIN 5 for bevel gears and DIN 6 for cylindrical gears. gearMILL is machineindependent, as it is stand-alone software that can generate NC programs for almost all lathes and milling machines. The program is created on the basis of drawings or gear data. “The solution is extremely economical for us because we can work with standard tools and at the same time have maximum flexibility because we don’t need any special machines for the prototypes or special solutions,” judges Bernard Vukovic. “We just enter the gear parameters and the software throws up the appropriate NC program.” Even contact pattern adaptations are possible without any problems, he adds.
The high precision of DMG MORI machining centers significantly reduces the amount of finishing work required. Nevertheless, NAMCO relies on high-performance grinding machines, which the company also found in the DMG MORI Group. The CVG-13 from TAIYO KOKI is a vertical multi-process grinding machine with pallet changer. Its grinding spindle has a speed of up to 9,000 rpm. “With it, we can grind both inner and outer diameters as well as surfaces – completely in one clamping,” Bernard Vukovic describes the added value. The maximum grinding diameter is ø 1,300 mm, the workpiece height is 700 mm, and the maximum workpiece weight is 3,000 kg. For smaller workpieces, NAMCO has installed an IGV-3N with a grinding diameter of 250 mm and a workpiece height of 300 mm. Here, the maximum speed of the grinding spindle is 18,000 rpm. For Bernard Vukovic, this is another gain in flexibility: “This way, we also benefit from grinding a wide variety of components.” The good cooperation with DMG MORI makes Bernard Vukovic optimistic about continuing the partnership. He sees NAMCO in an excellent position for future challenges: “After the opening of our site in Ohio, the expansion of our product portfolio and the modernization of our manufacturing, we have created a good basis for continuing to grow sustainably.”
