by Bernard Martin

Sacramento, CA. -  Next Generation Tooling, LLC, a manufacturer's representative agency, founded in 1995 and servicing the California Nevada Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico CNC manufacturing markets has just opened TWO offices in California.

Most of Next Generation Tooling's customers know them as "the Next Gen guys" according to Chris Savolainen, the Founder and President of 'Next Gen Tooling'.

What was the rationale of opening not one, but two offices when the entire team has worked out of their own home offices for years?

"We've grown our market service area quite a bit since we started out servicing just Northern California.  We now include most of the Western States of the US.  We've s been adding some of the best technical CNC application people we can find to support the unique mix of principles we represent. The products that we represent are what are considered very high performance tooling and workholding.  It's some of the premiere products in our entire industry! We determined that we really needed a place to provide on-site technical training.  We also needed to carry some inventory to support the unique needs of the aerospace, medical, electronics and defense industries that we support." Said Savolainen.

Rob Aldama, Vice-President of Next Gen Tool picks up the story,  "At first we thought that one training and showroom might be good enough, but as we started talk to our distributor, machine dealer and end-user manufacturing customers, we discovered that there was a real need for facilities in both Northern and Southern California. None of our competitors are providing the deep technical service that has helped us gain market share, so we really felt we should just take it to the next level and open two facilities."

With the Covid-19 pandemic raging there are not a lot of companies expanding. Most are cutting costs and employees. When asked about this both Chris and Rob stated that their team of people have remained pretty busy throughout this entire period. 

Chris said "We get asked in to shops to provide technical support pretty often. Putting on the full body PPE suits has been kind of common for us during the past few months." 

Rob picked it up from there, "I think we may be some of the really select few that have been asked to come into shops because we're not just taking orders, we're reducing cycle time and we're improving efficiency"

Chris jumped back in, "And maybe its a little bit self serving,  We can have the equipment set-up at both locations instead of trying to bring it into a facility.  It's actually a lot easier, faster and safer to bring people to one of our locations rather than try to move things with lots  of sweat and heavy breathing in PPE." 

"Yea, We can bring people to either location and do the training.  There are far less interruptions and the I think people learn a lot more, and learn it faster" stated Rob.

What types of training do they provide at Next Gen's new buildings?  They start off with a lot of fundamentals that people running CNC machines may never had any formal training about. That's where their basic Training Classes fit in.

But they also can go much deeper with their Advanced Part Manufacturing training series

• Programming Tool Path – Climb versus Conventional
• Material Machinability – Cubic Inches of Stock Removal
• Part Set Up / Workholding  & Fixturing
  
• Tool Holder Selection, Collet, Solid, Hydraulic, Shrink Fit
• Cutting Tool Selection – Substrate, Geometry, Coating, Speed and Feeds 
• Estimating Part Cycle Time

As BIG KAISER celebrates 30 years, Chris Kaiser reflects on running a company from home again.

It’s been 30 years since I started KAISER Precision Tooling USA, and I never imagined I’d be running this company from home again. Like most BIG KAISER employees, I’m working remote at least a few days each week to maintain the required social distance. I can relate to the experience many are having now as they juggle work and family at literally the same time. Isn’t this the experience of parents everywhere who are also entrepreneurs working to start a new business? 
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Back in 1990, after living and working in the U.S. for nearly a decade, I started this company out of necessity. I knew we needed to change how we were selling the boring tools manufactured by my father’s company in Switzerland, Heinz Kaiser AG. I had a vision to increase sales with better marketing, product deliveries and customer service, but my goals weren’t shared by the agents and partners we had at that time. 

That’s how I found myself sequestered at home with two little boys regularly knocking on the door asking when I was going to come out and play. As much as I wanted to do that, I also needed to focus on setting up a new company from scratch. There was no building, no equipment, no staff. 

Many late nights were spent working with a friend in his basement, writing a business plan, setting up systems for accounting and IT, and making the first boring tool catalog. During the day I sought legal advice, met with lenders and looked for a facility that would house this new company. 

In July of that year, I was joined by my long-time partner, and now BIG KAISER Vice President, Jack Burley. Operations Manager Tim Grosch also started in that first year. There were many other friends and influential people along the way, but these two have been with me on this adventure since the very beginning. 

On August 1, 1990 – coincidentally also Swiss Independence Day – we opened the doors at our first facility in Elk Grove Village, IL. It was two minutes from my house so I could spend a lot of late nights at work, after dinner with my family, just as my father did when I was little.

After 30 years, I’m proud to say we’ve had a good number of customers from the very beginning. Possibly the first was a Swiss-born machinist who carried Heinz Kaiser boring tools back from his vacation in Zurich to his job in the repair center at United Airlines in San Francisco. United remains a customer of BIG KAISER today. Some of those old boring tools are repairable and still in service. 

Many U.S. companies in defense and other industries bought SIP jig-boring machines made in Geneva, Switzerland. They also invested in precision boring tool kits – packed in a wooden case – from Heinz Kaiser AG. We’re grateful that companies like Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky, Caterpillar, John Deere, Metalex, Vermeer and Viking Pump – among others – are still with us to this day. 

Breaking NEWS from Platinum Tooling: ER Collet Chucks are available in single or double ended style and come in various lengths. Offered in both metric or inch sizes, these tools can be ordered in round or with flats.

Tecnicrafts manufactures these toolholders to a tight run out tolerance of 5 microns or less and adheres to the h6 standard for shank diameter.

All Tecnicrafts Collets and Guide Bushings are available in Standard and Ultra-Precision grades.

The bore profiles include Round, Square, Hexagon, Rectangle and Custom as per customer specifications.

The collets are offered in steel and carbide lined versions with Grooved, Smooth, or Serrated bores in Standard and Long Nose types.

Special V-line and Over-Grip collets are also available.

Tecnicrafts Guide Bushings are generally offered in carbide lining with U-line, Over-Grip, and Extended Nose & Long Bores available.

For quick delivery, Platinum Tooling inventories the most common sizes and styles of Collets & Guide Bushings at their headquarters located in Prospect Heights, Illinois. Non-standard items are available to ship within 3-4 weeks.

While we may not be able to gather in-person for our annual Breakfast & Learn egg-stravaganza, we’d like to continue this tradition. Please join us on Thursday, May 28, at 10 a.m. CT for our first Virtual Breakfast & Learn.

We, too, will miss the in-person camaraderie – not to mention the bacon, eggs, yogurt parfaits and, of course, a great cup of coffee — however, this virtual event allows even more people to attend.

Get a tour of our showroom and meet our product managers and then sit back and relax for an informative presentation on tooling and workholding considerations for 5-axis machining.

Be one of the first 150 attendees to RSVP and we will send you a snazzy BIG KAISER Breakfast & Learn mug.

We hope to see you there.

Platinum Tooling is stocking many common styles and sizes of Tecnicraft collets and guide bushings at their Illinois facility.

These high quality collets and guide bushings for Swiss type CNC lathes are manufactured with run-out tolerances as low as 5 microns. Also available for special order with long nose, extended carbide, and special bore shapes.

Our friend, Bernie Martin at Rapid Production Marketing sent us this document produced by Catalyst Connection in Pittsburgh, PA. It's a very detailed outline and workbook made for manufacturing companies to help them set up standard and policies durning the Coronavirus pandemic.  

It's really worth digging into and taking a look at!  

​You can download the entire manual below.

Customers and partners of BIG KAISER teamed up to generate a $7,283 donation to benefit the National Robotics League (NRL). The amount is nearly 10 percent more than last year and the fourth year-over-year increase in NRL funding from BIG KAISER.

The donation is a 2% match of all qualified orders from NTMA and AMT (Association for Manufacturing Technology) member companies during the final two months of each calendar year. Manufacturers placed orders for cutting tools, tool holders, workholding and tool measurement systems, earning funds for the NRL at the same time.  

“We need to get involved at every level to grow the next-generation workforce. Our company does that by partnering with local schools, our community colleges and the trade associations,” says Chris Kaiser, CEO of BIG KAISER. “NRL is just one more way for us to engage kids and promote careers in manufacturing.”

“We’re not just fighting a skills gap in our workforce, we have an ‘interest gap’ too. The NRL helps create excitement about manufacturing technology and STEM careers,” says Roger Atkins, president at NTMA (National Tooling and Machining Association). “We appreciate BIG KAISER’s continued support year over year, and of course all of the NTMA and AMT members who participate in the program to support the NRL.”  

The National Robotics League (NRL) is a manufacturing workforce development program of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) where students design and build remote controlled robots (Bots) to face-off in a gladiator-style competition.

Through the manufacturing process of Bot building, students’ imaginations are captured as they design, build and compete with their own robotic creations.

Through this hands-on effort along with industry partnerships, students gain practical knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) – all essential skills for manufacturing.