Tavis Vaughn, vice president of engineering at CNC Machine Products, needed a lifting solution to serve three Mazak CNCs, he remembered seeing the Gorbel Easy Arm crane at IMTS 2012. Tavis Vaughn still remembers the first time he saw the Easy Arm floor-mounted crane from Gorbel (IMTS booth #135784). At the time, he was focused on machining and automation — primarily through robots — but what caught his attention wasn’t a robot at all. It was a different kind of automation: a smart, operator-assisted crane. “The Gorbel Easy Arm floor-mounted crane stuck in my head,” Vaughn recalls. “They showed me what it could do back at IMTS 2012. I just filed it away.” Vaughn, then a CNC programmer, was walking the aisles of McCormick Place looking for ideas. Now, as vice president of engineering at CNC Machine Products, he was ready to take action to create a machining cell featuring two Mazak (IMTS booth #338300) Quick Turn 300s and a Quick Turn 350 CNC turning center. At the time, Vaughn didn’t have an immediate use for the crane — but he remembered it. Ten years later, when CNC Machine Products faced a new challenge, that memory paid off. “The great thing about going to IMTS is that you find solutions,” says Vaughn. “It might not even be a problem you have at the moment. It may be years down the road, like when our current need arose. All I had to do was go to the Gorbel website, find our local distributorship, and the rest is history.” That mindset — identifying solutions before the need arises — has shaped how CNC Machine Products approaches automation across its operations. Work Cell Solutions CNC Machine Products primarily produces inner and outer bearing races for major bearing companies worldwide. At its Joplin, Missouri, location, the company saws rings and pieces from solid bars and forgings that range in diameter from 1/8 to 20 inches. It then soft turns the bearing steel to create a grooved channel for the rolling elements; the races are then heat treated and ground to precision by customers. For handling smaller parts, cobots provide a good solution. Because they don’t require fencing, the machines can be placed closer together, saving valuable floor space. As CNC Machine Products grew its business over the years, Vaughn was ready to implement automation solutions. In fact, long before it used an intelligent crane for parts handling, the company had worked with integrator Acieta to install industrial robots and cobots from FANUC (IMTS booth #338900). “The way our system works in all of our manufacturing cells is that we have a first operation and second operation,” explains Vaughn. “The robot or cobot will load the part, and we’ll machine the first side. We flip it over and run the second side to complete a part.” CNC Machine Products installed its first FANUC industrial robot to serve two Mazak Mega Turn vertical turning centers to machine larger bearing races. “Because these machines have long runs, I fought for using robots, and we’ve never looked back,” says Vaughn. More recently, CNC Machine Products installed two Acieta Fastload CX Mobile Arms with a FANUC CRX cobot for smaller parts. Mounted on a mobile platform, they can be moved and redeployed in minutes. Each cobot serves a pair of Mazak turning centers. Because they don’t require fencing, the machines can be placed closer together, saving valuable floor space. “After the past year of having the cobots, I firmly believe you have to automate. My return on investment time was half of what I originally planned for,” says Jeff Scheurich, president of CNC Machine Products. “You have to get some type of automation going, or you’ll be obsolete.” While robots and cobots have become essential to CNC Machine Products’ operations, they aren’t the right fit for every application. Smart Cranes That gap became clear as the company planned a new manufacturing cell for heavier, low-volume parts — an application where traditional robotic automation didn’t make economic or practical sense. While the industrial robot works well for high-volume, larger parts, and the cobot is at least two times more efficient than hand-loading with small quantities of lighter parts, neither solution would work well for the heavy (up to 200-lb), low-volume parts that would run in this new cell. “We didn't want to invest that kind of money for an industrial robot and interchangeable head option when we would only have 20 to 30 parts coming off our 12- and 15-inch chucks,” says Vaughn. “Further, this manufacturing cell would have three Quick Turn CNCs, and we might have three different part numbers running. Also, total manufacturing time is measured in hours or even days, depending on setup.” Even with a strong commitment to automation, CNC Machine Products needed a solution that could handle heavy parts safely and efficiently without the cost and complexity of a full robotic system. That’s when Vaughn remembered his trip to IMTS 2012. When the Easy Arm first lifts the part up, it automatically calculates how much the part weighs/ From then on, the operator doesn’t have to hold the crane anymore. Gorbel’s Easy Arm combines a hand-guided articulating jib crane with its patented “G-Force” technology that features an industrial processor-controlled servo drive system. Think of G-Force as power steering for crane operators. Electric servo motors and sensors actively assist and stabilize the load while the operator guides it by hand. Instead of the operator supplying all the force (and fighting inertia, sway, and friction), the crane’s control system detects operator intent and provides controlled motion. The Easy Arm allows operators to finesse heavy parts into place yet move at speeds up to four times faster than a traditional crane. Vaughn reports that operators especially appreciate the crane’s “Float Mode,” which creates a weightless sensation without a risk of accidentally driving the part into the floor. “When our Easy Arm first lifts the part up, it automatically calculates how much the part weighs. From then on, the operator doesn’t have to hold the crane anymore; he can guide the part with two hands,” says Vaughn. “When he needs to lift a different part, the crane recalculates the new weight with the push of a button.” After engaging Gorbel’s local distributor, Vaughn learned that the standard Easy Arm crane, which has a span of 14 feet, would be one foot too short. Fortunately, extending the span an extra foot in exchange for a slightly reduced lighting capacity of 200 lbs. was an easy modification. “We were pleased to work with Tavis to find the right solution for his facility,” Christina Green, marketing and events strategist. “Helping people work more safely and efficiently is at the heart of what we do, and our lifting solutions are built to improve lives in meaningful ways. This year, our excitement is even greater as we showcase the new Vi Easy Arm by Gorbel at IMTS 2026 in booth 135784.” Looking Forward to IMTS 2026 Vaughn attended his first IMTS in 1998, did not go again until 2012, and has attended every year since. Register at IMTS.com/Register.“At IMTS 2026, we’re going to explore AI for CNC and robot maintenance,” he says. “We also want to expand our automation beyond robots and check out autonomous guided vehicles, such as for moving pallets or inspection gauges.” Vaughn also says CNC Machine Products “always looks at tooling.” Unlike CNC and automation providers, where the company has close relationships with long-time providers, there are so many exhibitors in the Tooling & Workholding sector that “we tend to find a lot of new tooling at IMTS.” In his role as vice president, Vaughn considers IMTS a “must-attend” event. “There are so many things I find at IMTS. Just like the need for the Gorbel crane, things pop up,” he says. “I knew that there would be a need for it at some point. Whatever you might be looking for — or aren’t even looking for — you’ll find it at IMTS. That's just the truth.”
A crane demonstrated 14 years ago finds a niche amid automation solutions.
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