From the course: Skilled Trades: Manufacturing Careers

Ira Green

- Hi, welcome to Ira Green. Here at Ira Green, we manufacture many types of military insignia and medals. It starts with our design team over here. and the design team goes to work on it, and they make it happen. Once we get the prints made from our system, we integrate it over here into our CNC DATRON machines. Oh, here's one of our medals right now. This is one we're very proud of, Purple Heart, that we make. After the design is all done, and we have what we want, we proceed to the CNC equipment. depending on a design, and we place it in the machine, and then we begin the cutting process. First, the tools have to be sharpened, everything has to be set right, and then we start the cutting process. and the rest of the tool. We make punches and we make plates. and then it's disregarded, 'cause it's no good after one cut. And also over here we have... The hand aspect of the trade never goes away. and what he's doing right now is, he's fitting a boss or something for design out there, when you're doing this trade. Not everything is done by the computers you also need to have a lot a hand work. Heat treating ovens are over here. What we do, based on temperature, we are now going to harden them. In the soft state, they cannot be used for production. So we heat treat them to a certain Rockwell, Once it's heat treated, it gets cleaned, sandblasted, it gets tempered, and then it gets ground. Right now we have a toolmaker grinding something, getting ready it for the wire EDM. and the rough machining, and the heat treating, and you have all the components to make a tool, that's going to go in to our production items. Once he gets that, we'll put that in a power press the excess off of the stamping that we make. And we do a lot of these tools in the course of a week, a day, a year. This is what we use to manufacture the strip stock is set up. Right here. depending on the tool, depending on the design, depending on the part, will be what we're making there. Over here, you can hear the press running, more noise. (machine clicking) We have more stock over here, we carry a lot of inventory. So now we've shown you somewhat of the design process, So now we will take a brief trip down and show you how somewhat of the polishing and plating. So this is our rack-up area over here. So this is our rack-up area over here. So, our employees rack up the product over here, So, our employees rack up the product over here, It gets put on the wall over here, It goes in the plating room, and it gets plated. It goes in the plating room, and it gets plated. It'll be plated either gold, or rhodium, It'll be plated either gold, or rhodium, or silver, let's call it. or silver, let's call it. They take the raw parts that we've made now They take the raw parts that we've made now and they're kind of rough, so nobody wants to buy it that way. So even before the plating process, So even before the plating process, we need to polish it up and make it nice. So, I'll just take you a walk around here and you can see. So, I'll just take you a walk around here and you can see. This is the automatic side of the polishing, This is the automatic side of the polishing, it's where you can really go quick it's where you can really go quick and mass produce products. and mass produce products. This is one of our automatic machines over here. This is one of our automatic machines over here. Operators just keeps feeding it. Operators just keeps feeding it. Comes around, they take it off, put it on. Comes around, they take it off, put it on. And that's what they do there for that. And that's what they do there for that. So you can see that's a pretty quick process. So you can see that's a pretty quick process. Do a little different item over here, Do a little different item over here, they do the same thing, they just keep going around, it comes back, they take it off, they put it on, it comes back, they take it off, they put it on, it feeds itself. it feeds itself. Over here is where hand polishing is still necessary. Over here is where hand polishing is still necessary. Not everything can be aggressively polished. Not everything can be aggressively polished. So if there's some things that have to be polished lightly, So if there's some things that have to be polished lightly, so there's only one to do that and that's by hand, so there's only one to do that and that's by hand, with hand pressure on that. (machines whirring) (machines whirring) We take it from the raw state and do it right from the very beginning of that concept and do it right from the very beginning of that concept right to the very end of the packaging process and the shipping process.

Contents