Poplar Hill Machine, Inc.

Young Job Shop Stakes Its Place in the World

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming your own boss, you will be inspired by the story of Michael Kurkulonis, President of Poplar Hill Machine, Inc.  His young job shop is experiencing remarkable success in the midst of a challenging economy.  His business strategy is clear: use the most advanced machine tools and automation to manufacture high- tech parts for specialized industries. 

The desire to strike a balance between work and family motivated Mike to start his own job shop. With one employee and a new Kitamura Horizontal, Mike set up operations in his garage on April 1, 2004, in Conway, Massachusetts, and began to produce small part runs for two customers. Setting up business in the garage didn't leave much room for the family cars, but it did allow him to spend valued time with his growing family.

As word of Poplar Hill’s machining capabilities spread, orders for unique, high tech components from telecommunications, aerospace and medical customers started to come in, encouraging Mike to invest in more complex machines and technology. At the end of December 2007, Mike and a staff of seven moved to a spacious new facility built on a hillside not far from his home.

Focus on Automation

In addition to the original equipment, several new CNC and manual machine tools are housed in the new facility.  Mike’s purchasing decisions are increasingly influenced by his belief in automation.  Automation allows his small shop to achieve a very high level of productivity and is fundamentally necessary due to the shortage of skilled machinists in the area.  It also improves the quality of his finished product.

“My motto is ‘One op complete,’ “Mike remarked when asked about his business philosophy and what contributes to his success. “The less we move the part, the greater our accuracies and proficiency.” 
 
Sitting on the shop floor now are a collection of carefully selected machines from Hurco, Kitamura, Fanuc RoboDrill, and Okuma.  The Okuma MA-400 HA Space Center horizontal machining center dominates the shop floor, with an automated tool changer that houses 198 different tools and an automated pallet exchanger with 12 pallets that allows operation on a round-the-clock basis, seven days a week. Poplar Hill purchased the Okuma in April 2008 after a thorough evaluation of alternate machines.  The Okuma’s accuracy, speed, and range of automated functions met the criteria necessary to machine an extremely complex part presented to him in concept by a customer specializing in computer chip assembly.

The part was so complex that other engineers approached by the customer were still puzzling over how to machine it when Mike came up with the solution. The problem was that the complex engineering required to produce the part exceeded the technological capabilities of his existing machines. The customer wanted the parts quickly and agreed to give the job to Poplar Hill if Mike invested in the equipment to produce them.  Mike seized the opportunity to expand his business into manufacturing of high tech parts and components.

Acquiring the Technology

He decided to look into the Okuma line because he was already familiar with its quality reputation.  He was further inclined to pursue the Okuma line knowing that The Robert E. Morris Company was its distributor.  The Robert E. Morris Company was reputed to deliver high- end service and turnkey installations—two things that Mike needed to get the complex machining process that he envisioned up and running in little time.

Mike called Lorraine Lloyd, Account Manager at The Robert E. Morris Company. Lorraine had introduced herself to Mike at EASTEC 2007 when he visited The Robert E. Morris Company booth.  Over the course of several months, Lorraine had kept in touch with Mike and toured his new facility shortly after it opened.  She knew that Mike had been impressed with the Okuma line but was surprised when he said that he might have an order for her.  Lorraine assembled a team of co-workers from sales, engineering, tooling and finance to meet with her and Mike at the distributor’s Windsor, Connecticut office.

Engineers at The Robert E. Morris Company studied Mike’s machining requirements and created a schematic design of a production center that incorporated the Okuma MA 400 Machining Center with an upgraded heavy duty spindle and a myriad of tools, technology, and accessories. 

The extensive, automated tool changer and state-of-the-art pallet exchanger with custom tool holding from Rego-Fix were key components of the design. To the best of Mike’s knowledge, his shop is the only one in the area with a machining center that utilizes a dedicated, automated pallet changer of its size and sophistication.  Poplar Hill’s stand-alone system has twelve tombstone- style pallets that accommodate 96 work piece surfaces and permit continuous machining of one job or multiple, diverse jobs.  Mike chose a Chick Workholding system to create the batch production capability that he wanted. 

“For us to compete in any environment, we have to run lights out. One of the reasons we went with the Okuma was because of the capability to run twelve pallets in consecutive order,” Mike explained.  “Some of the parts we machine require .005 inch diameter end mill and entail lengthy cycle times.  With this system, we can program the jobs and let them run unmanned, all weekend long,”

Creating a thermodynamically stable machining system was a critical requirement of Poplar Hill’s “lights out” operation. The types of applications that Poplar Hill planned to run, in conjunction with the need to maintain exacting tolerances, necessitated the addition of a sophisticated high pressure coolant system to the Okuma, complete with a chiller system that maintains a constant coolant temperature.

From initial meeting at the distributor to installation took roughly six weeks.   The Robert E. Morris Company helped arranged financing of the entire purchase, including tooling packages and work holding, through its affiliate, Machinery Finance Resources. 

Mike says that it was the easiest purchase and installation of equipment that he ever experienced.  The most difficult aspect of the deal was handled by the distributor.  The Robert E. Morris Company determined that the only Okuma MA 400 HA in the U.S. configured with the accessories that Mike wanted was located on the opposite coast, in Long Beach, California.  The company arranged cross-country transportation of the machine.  It was moved by flatbed with escorts as an extra wide load, meeting up with two other flatbeds loaded with parts and accessories in Conway, where narrow dirt roads finally halted the convoy.  All of the equipment was offloaded at the bottom of the hill and transported by forklift for the last leg of the trip, into the shop.

The Robert E. Morris Company manufacturing process design engineer involved since the initial meeting oversaw the installation, over the course of three days.  The applications engineer responsible for running demo parts and testing tolerances while the machine was being prepped at the company’s tech center stepped in next, preparing the Okuma for start-up.  Mike hired a professional calibration company to inspect the Okuma before using it and received very impressive accuracies.  He was ready to get down to business.

Leveraging the Competitive Advantage

Ironically, the job that led Mike to purchase the Okuma, never materialized.  Mike has not regretted his purchase decision for a minute, however.  

“It is hard to compete for large runs of low cost parts in the U.S.  Give me a challenging, high- tech part that cannot be produced to exacting specifications in China or Mexico, however, and that’s my strongpoint,” said Mike. 

With the Okuma MA 400 HA Space Center, Poplar Hill Machine can hold tolerances to within 50- millionths of an inch of the customer’s specifications.  Mike added ABSO glass scales and a laser calibration system from MD Calibration to measure and verify his levels of accuracies.  Most parts are presented to Mike while still in the concept stage. He has both Mastercam and EdgeCam software in his shop and will use either or both programs to execute prototype designs. His engineering background facilitates work with customers in the emerging field of microwave radio telecommunications, one of his leading areas of new business.  Mike has become highly skilled in developing machining processes and prototypes on quick turnarounds— a necessity when working with a rapidly evolving industry.

On the day of this interview, for example, Poplar Hill was producing a prototype for a microwave camera mount on the Okuma MA 400 HA.  In total, twenty-one tools were used to machine the part.  Complete cycle time from slug to finished part was forty minutes.

Between machining prototypes and keeping up with ongoing work orders from Poplar Hill’s current customer base, the Okuma machining center experiences little down time.  While a prototype is being examined or a first article inspected by a customer, the Okuma is programmed to run any one of the 58 jobs already stored in its Thinc OSP software. 

The technological capabilities of the Okuma allow Poplar Hill Machine to run difficult and diverse jobs without sacrificing productivity.  Machinists can program a feed rate of 600 inches/minute and the machine will automatically de- accelerate and accelerate as needed around curves, looking ahead at least 50 lines in the program to assure constant machining.  One of the jobs recently run on the Okuma circle interpolates  a 1 1/8th inch diameter bore at 50 ipm in 6061 aluminum while maintaining a tolerance +/- .0001”.

Some of the most challenging parts that Mike has machined are “waveguides” used in microwave telecommunications.  Waveguides direct invisible electrical microwaves, with amplitudes measured in millimeters.  Mike has produced as few as one wave guide at a time for a customer, to hundreds in one job.  Mike believes that microwave radio telecommunications will replace cable- driven communications as it brings advanced technology to remote parts of the country and the world, and plays an increasingly important role in defense.

High Value Added Components

The parts and components that Poplar Hill produces consistently meet or exceed customers’ specifications and, in many cases, are “shipped to stock,” meaning that they are shipped directly to inventory, bypassing customers’ quality control points.  Poplar Hill’s parts have been shipped as far as the Middle East and currently orbit the earth in satellites.  Security detection scanner components machined in Conway are installed in navigational systems in military helicopters, to assist in landing on continually shifting desert sands. Other parts are used in beamed communications systems on Navy cruisers and unmanned drones. 

One might propose that Poplar Hill Machine, Inc. is a prototype, itself.  With a lean staff of skilled machinists and the most technologically advanced equipment at hand, it creates high- value added components that may come to typify successful U.S. job shops of the future. With skill, desire, and a bit of daring, Mike Kurkulonis has made the leap from a local job shop to a competitor in the global economy.  From his office on the second floor of his hillside facility, Mike has gained a view of a panorama that exceeds ordinary vision. Like the high- tech parts it creates, Poplar Hill Machine, Inc., reaches beyond Massachusetts and into the world.