Art Metals Group Succeeds with Nidec Minster Customer Service

 At Art Metals Group, located in Fairfield, Ohio, Minster Presses are expected to keep on running and running.

Founded in 1943, Art Metals Group combines proven past techniques with leading edge engineering and the latest available production technology to offer unique solutions for manufacturing difficult and custom stampings, thrust bearings and assemblies.

The company serves a wide variety of industries with parts ranging from heavy gauge blanking, forming and coining to the high-speed production of smaller washers.

Art Metals Group utilizes a variety of Minster presses, which are valued not only for their production capabilities, but for their longevity as well.

 “I know we have some 1950s presses,” said Bill Schell, Vice President of Operations at Art Metals Group. “We have two Minster presses from the 1940s, and all of them are actively in production. They’ve had some work done to them, but the foundation is there. They’re still active and in production. We have bought other makes of presses — more than one — used them for X amount of years and then literally threw them on the scrap pile. We have not done that with a Minster press. All our Minster presses are still active. Every single one of them.”

Contributing to the durability of the Minster press is an ongoing relationship with the Nidec Minster Customer Service group. Art Metals Group Maintenance Manager Alan Frey has utilized a Preventive Maintenance program with Nidec Minster for the last 10 years. A key part of the Minster PM program is regular press inspections, which include a “Press Health Report” highlighting areas of concern that should be addressed.

“Basically we have a service technician two days a month with the program,” Frey said. “But it’s flexible. Some months we don’t use it, so we can accrue a day or two. And then I might have them for a week or so to work on a project. The program has worked out very well for us. We’ve caught stuff ahead of time that we were able to plan downtime for. And because we’re able to accrue, we were able to do the repairs with those accrued hours.”

Relying on Minster’s service availability and expertise helped Frey solve a recent mysterious repair and returned a 68-year-old Minster press to its original glory.

“We have a 1957 P1-75 press that was purchased new when the company was located in Cincinnati,” he said. “At some point the original motor and drive line was replaced on this press. I suspected when the work was done, someone just used a motor that was available and made it work.”

When this current motor needed replaced, Frey enlisted the help of the Minster Service personnel to analyze what might be needed to get the proper parts to restore the press to its original condition and specifications.

Minster keeps records and complete drawings for every press its ever manufactured, and with this knowledge, Frey was able to make a startling discovery.

“When this current motor failed, it had a peculiar set-up that had a gearbox on the end motor, and I thought, ‘That doesn’t seem right that Minster would do this,'” Frey said. “So I told our guys, ‘Before we do this, I want Minster to look at this machine.’ And my hunch was right. When this machine was built at Minster, it was a 100 to 200 stroke a minute machine.

“The motor that got put on the machine only ran at 90 strokes and it was a fixed speed. So the press was running nowhere near its potential,” Frey continued. 

Working from the original specifications and drawings, the Repair Parts team at Minster put together a couple of pallets of part and shipped them to Art Metals Group. A Minster service tech helped Frey and his team with the finishing touches and now the press is running at 125 strokes per minute.

“And we have not maximized it yet because our feeding system is not capable of delivering parts any faster,” Frey said. “But we know it will go 125 strokes per minute. That press has been making the same part for the last 30 or 40 years, and if we could have run 25 percent faster, holy smokes think of what we left on the table.”

“To have a machine that is 60-70 years old, and to still get the correct parts is a tremendous asset,” Frey added. “With Minster’s help you can go back and find out what the situation is on any press.”

Art Metals Group stamps several unique parts, tied to a specific production system, making reliable presses and responsive service even more important.

“A lot of our stuff is one-offs,” Schell said. “We don’t have four press No. 60s. We have just one Press 60 that has an eight-foot bed. If that press goes down, we don’t have another press that large with that particular stroke with that particular feed line that we can put that die in. So it’s very important that the press runs all the time and is reliable.

“Service has been fantastic. Minster is a little less than two hours away. We’ve always been a participant in the Preventive Maintenance program and we have gotten good service and good response when we do have an issue,” Schell added.

Acquired by CM Paula in 2012, Art Metals Group remains privately owned and family operated. And, according to Schell, remaining highly responsive to its customers is what sets his company apart from the competition.

“Obviously it’s the work that we do that sets us apart,” Schell said. “Most people would say that sort of thing, but I’m gonna tell you it’s our customer service that makes us special. We listen. Our team is willing to go to the customer, understand what they need, listen to what they say, and be responsive to them and address what their pain points are.”

Art Metals Group recently completed a $5 million investment in a facility expansion and machinery for adding more high speed stamping capabilities.

The company is also developing a niche in new specialty washers. Schell said they are able to coin striations on heavy duty washers while blanking chamfers all with one stroke of the press.

The striations give the washers a “locking” capability, and are used in heavy industry. Formerly machined, Art Metals Group is able to stamp the washers at a fraction of the price.

To learn more about Art Metals Group and its impressive capabilities, visit the company online at www.artmetalsgroup.com.