As the first part of a foundation to obtain higher throughput and precision, Max Egan, CEO of Atlas Fibre, purchased six Okuma MU 6300V 5-axis vertical machining centers.“Four essentials need to align to machine a part: material, program, fixturing, and tooling,” states Max Egan, CEO of Atlas Fibre and Acculam. With that disciplined focus – and a vision for vertical integration – Egan has grown Atlas Fibre’s revenue 500% in five years while keeping headcount lean, from 90 people in 2019 to 130 people today. Atlas Fibre is a dominant North American supplier of thermoset composite laminate materials and precision machining of advanced plastics. Acculam, a key supplier to Atlas Fibre, produces fiber-reinforced epoxy and phenolic composites such as G10 and FR, which offer high mechanical strength and excellent electrical insulating qualities in both dry and humid conditions. Common applications include marine/naval, aerospace, defense, printed circuit boards (PCBs), electrical equipment components, down-hole tools in the oil and gas industry, machine parts, medical equipment, high-strength fixtures and jigs, and grips such as knife handles. Egan, who started as CEO of Acculam, recalls his motivation for acquiring Atlas Fibre in the fall of 2020. “Atlas Fibre was one step closer to the customer in the supply chain on the fabrication-distribution side of the business, and they consistently beat us on quotes,” says Egan. “I figured if we couldn’t beat them, we should join them, so we purchased Atlas Fibre. It’s been a fantastic journey. We can now provide the value of a vertically-integrated supply chain to our customers, delivering materials knowledge, design and production expertise, speed of delivery, and total quality accountability. In fact, we invested a quarter-million dollars in our testing lab and achieved AS9100 registration this year.” In July 2025, Atlas Fibre celebrated yet another “double day” (doubling its machining business), with plans to do it again within 18 months. Transforming Atlas Fibre required developing a strategic roadmap and sourcing new tools and technologies, including automated machining and digitizing the tool room. Attending IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show helped accomplish both objectives. The second part of the foundation for higher throughput was a Fastems FMS pallet handling system, which enables up to 72 hours of unattended operation. Shifting to Production Work In 2020, Atlas Fibre focused on standard precision three-axis work with some five-axis work, mostly supporting customers who happened to find Atlas Fibre because its name was on a material certification. The company had six drill/tap mills and two large-format routers. “We wanted to shift the company from doing small batch and one-off style prototype work to production-style contract manufacturing,” says Egan. To obtain higher throughput and precision, Atlas Fibre’s first move was to purchase six Okuma (IMTS booth #338500) MU 6300V five-axis vertical machining centers with load/unload robots. Quickly realizing the limitations of the robots, Atlas Fibre integrated the machining centers with a Fastems (IMTS booth #338966) FMS pallet handling system. The FMS (flexible manufacturing system) consists of the following components: A rail-guided pallet vehicle to handle workpiece logistics between machine tools, setup stations, and buffer storage. It stacks pallets on several levels to minimize floor space. Buffer storage for preconfigured pallet/tombstone fixture setups and material blanks. A loading station with the capability of tilting the pallet for easier and faster loading of heavy parts. The control system and operator station. Integrated machine tools (the six Okuma CNCs). Recognizing Atlas Fibre’s efficiency and quality achievements, Zoller award Atlas Fibre with its “Tool Room of the Year Award,” which was announced at IMTS 2024.Automation and Flexible Manufacturing Atlas Fibre’s FMS system features more than 152 different pallet positions and about 70 material holding positions. Every system in the facility, whether automated or not, uses a zero-point fixturing system. All machines are equipped with a touch probe in one of the tool holders, enabling offset management. “With Fastems and Okuma, we really found our niche of high-volume, high-mix, high-precision machining,” says Egan. “We are very good at doing one setup, one time, and leaving that inside the system so that a customer can reorder that at any time. We have very fast delivery because we eliminated the time required to prove out the setup, and we always have the raw material in stock.” As Egan noted, the four factors that can stop a machine from running are material, program, fixturing, and tooling. He chose the FMS system for its proactive capabilities. “Programming into a machine is table stakes. What is not table stakes is a system that can provide proactive notification when and why the system is going to stop,” says Egan. “Take tool management. For example, the FMS can notify us that in three hours tool 42 needs to be changed, so we make sure to put an identical tool in pocket 43 to prevent downtime.” Atlas Fibre has become so proficient with its FMS system that it can achieve up to 72 hours of unattended run time. Longer run times are possible, but the company sticks to a 72-hour limit because responding to urgent customer requests beyond that point becomes unpredictable. At the CNC, the operator scans this QR code to automatically import all setup and other data into the machine, saving time and eliminating data entry errors. Award-Winning Tool Management Machining thermoset composites presents a particular challenge because the fiberglass turns into a material similar to the silica sand found in sandpaper and wears tools at a fast rate. After labor, tooling is Atlas Fibre’s second-highest cost. “If you want to be economically efficient at machining composites, you need to be an expert at tool management,” says Egan. “When the material is so abrasive, and because we machine at high rpms, having tools with low runout and high-quality holders that are balanced well is non-negotiable. When you need redundant tooling for long periods of unattended runtime, that means you need to preset your tooling as well.” To better manage costs, Egan sought out a company that could provide tool balancers and presetters and help improve tool management and further leverage its vertical storage module. Zoller (IMTS booth #432018) technology fit the bill. “We looked at a couple of different companies, and Zoller did a very compelling demonstration. We purchased a Redomatic 400 presetting and measuring machine with integrated tool heat-shrinking system, a PowerShrink clamping/unclamping system, and a ToolBalancer 550,” says Egan. “However, what was even more important was the implementation of Zoller’s Tool Management Software.” The Zoller TMS serves as the master database for tools data such as geometry, offsets, tool life, assemblies, 3D models, supplier data, and more. Atlas Fibre uses Mastercam (IMTS booth #133222), which connects to the TMS database via Zoller’s interfaces, allowing programmers to pull verified tool assemblies directly into their CAM tool libraries. “The tool we design in Mastercam is the digital twin of the tool that’s used in real life in the tool room. There is no way that the tool room can make a tool that doesn’t exist in Mastercam,” says Egan. “As a side note about eliminating tooling-related mistakes, Vericut (IMTS booth #133312) simulation software is a big part of our ecosystem as well. We simulate every single program. CNCs are expensive. Minimizing crashes while also maximizing the amount of production that happens per unit of time is a critical part of making them efficient.” Atlas Fibre also uses Zoller’s zidCode technology. Before presetting or balancing a tool, tool room personnel scan a QR code on the tool. At the end of the presetting and balancing process, the machine sends all data to TMS, which links it to the tool. At the CNC, the operator scans the QR code to automatically import all setup and other data into the machine, saving time and eliminating data entry errors. “Good shops can machine, but great shops can manage tools,” says Egan. Atlas Fibre became so proficient that it won Zoller’s “Tool Room of the Year” award, which was announced at IMTS 2024 (see at-show interview with Practical Machinist). The Zoller presetter shown here communicates data to the Zoller Tool Management Software, which serves as the master database for tools data such as geometry, offsets, tool life, assemblies, 3D models, supplier data, and more. Lessons Learned and Industry Insights Egan is a computer science and electrical engineer by training. He worked at J.P. Morgan, earned his MBA from Harvard, and then led a start-up company before joining Acculam. He first attended IMTS in 2022, which was before Atlas Fibre started investing heavily in equipment. “My experience was limited in the CNC manufacturing world, but I’m a strong process person,” says Egan. “At the end of the day, what Atlas Fibre does is translate customer requests into products that we ship, and we do that through machines and processes. What IMTS is very, very good at is helping you understand what good looks like. So many of the technologies work together. Having them all in one place enables you to draw connections and see how they play in your ecosystem.” Egan says that at his first IMTS he did not quite understand the benefits or downsides of various technologies or why they would be deployed. By IMTS 2024, he had been immersed in the machining world and the technologies and connections became clear. “As CEO, my job is to make sure that when a machine arrives on our floor, our ecosystem can absorb it and use it to its maximum effect,” he says. The ecosystem at Atlas Fibre has grown rapidly. It includes other Fastems systems, including an FMS equipped with a rail-mounted Kuka 1000 robot (IMTS booth #236807) for material handling and two FPT pallet towers that feed Okuma MU 8000V 5-axis systems. The shop floor also has four Tsugami B0206-V automatic lathes (IMTS booth #339410) fed by 12-ft. bar feeders and 16 FANUC Robodrills (IMTS booth #338900), whose high-speed capabilities (up to 24,000 rpm) make them workhorses for high-volume composites machining. The company also has several large format routers. In total, 36 new spindles hit the production floor in the first half of 2025. “You can’t sell capacity you don’t have,” says Egan, noting that some industries demand rapid turnaround, such as the power generation industry after a damaging storm. “Every machine in our facility has a duplicate so that we are never limited by a single choke point for a given operation. It is very important for us to be able to manage emergent demand and that we can scale with our customers as they grow their businesses.” Atlas Fibre’s growth plan is working. The sales and marketing team continues to bring in new business, and the company leaders leverage the power of manufacturing technology to meet demand. The company relies on the scheduling and advanced planning capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 (IMTS booth #236609), a suite of AI-powered business applications for customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning. A digital display in the front lobby, affectionately called a “pizza tracker,” shows on-time delivery status, which is currently above 95%. Through all of these technology additions, Atlas Fibre has also engaged, upskilled, and expanded its labor force. All of the front-line leads and managers are internal promotions who started as machine operators. As Atlas Fibre looks to add even more automation and connect its systems (a goal for IMTS 2026), more opportunities will arise. “There is this old paradigm where people are afraid that they’re going to lose their jobs because of automation,” says Egan. “People do not lose their job due to a company growing, and the only companies that are growing are the companies that are automating and leveraging the power of digital solutions.” To see the entire ecosystem of manufacturing technologies and learn how they can transform your contract manufacturing operation, register now for IMTS 2026, Sept. 14-19, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Explore dozens of technologies by keyword using the IMTS Search function and use the IMTS Show Planner to plan your visit.

{{postDate}}{{author}},

Machining

{{stripHTML(title)}}

Featured Companies

Exhibitors & Products

Related Articles