Visioneering Inc. to introduce North America's largest aerospace 5-axis tooling machine

Visioneering, Inc., has accepted Certificate of Occupancy for their new facility in Auburn Hills, MI. Following an extensive search to find an existing building, Visioneering decided to custom engineer a new facility that best suited improved manufacturing flow. The result is a beautiful green field facility located at 2055 Taylor Road, Auburn Hills, MI 48326.

The new 185,000 sq. ft. facility gives Visioneering a 125% increase in manufacturing space and features six 400 feet long bays that range from 60 to 80 feet wide. Each manufacturing bay contains overhead cranes that carry up to 50 tons with a hook height of 30 feet in all areas of the facility, an increase of almost 40% over current capacity. The entire building is climate controlled within plus or minus 2°F to ensure accuracy on tight tolerance tools. Highly reinforced concrete slabs were poured in certain areas of the facility in order to eliminate even the slightest movement during tool build and inspection. Floor to ceiling hard walls separate each of the three manufacturing areas to ensure dirt, debris, machine oil, etc. remain in their designated areas and will not contaminate the other processes. In addition, the facility was designed for a site expansion of up to 90,000 additional sq. feet of space that would only take 90 days to complete.

In addition to the new facility, Visioneering is installing three new Innse Berardi 5-Axis overhead gantry spindles. The larger of the two machines will be a dual gantry, 5-Axis machine that contains an impressive cutting envelope of 26m x 8m x 3m. Upon successful installation and testing, Visioneering will have the largest 5-Axis machine tool, by cutting volume, of any North American tooling supplier. In addition, a second Innse Barardi machine measuring 10m x 6m x 3m will also be installed. Both machines are scheduled to be fully operational in November, 2015.

Visioneering has developed a phased in approach to the new facility in order to minimize risk of production disruption. In late May, Visioneering will begin moving the fabrication and final assembly departments. By early June all employees and equipment except the machine shop will be located at the new facility. Dual facilities will run for a period of time until the machine shop transition is complete. Once the new Innse Berardi equipment is installed and operational, Visioneering will then begin to move one machine at a time from the current facility in Fraser, MI. This plan ensures Visioneering retains a net gain of two spindles over current capacity during to the move. The projected timeframe to complete the machine shop transition is 6 months.

Visioneering owns and plans to retain the two current buildings located in Fraser, MI. which total approximately 100,000 sq. ft. Executive leadership is currently exploring options of what that additional space might be used for in the future to better serve the ever changing landscape of aerospace tooling.