Filtering a New Channel to Productivity: High-volume, High-mix Swiss Turning

June 11, 2025 1:33 pm

Wisconsin-based Mitotec Precision has taken the process of business transformation to an entirely new level. Opening its doors in 1963, the fourth-generation enterprise has transitioned from the traditional cam-style machining of bosses, bushings and pins to high-precision, high-production processing for the firearms, medical and aerospace industries with cutting-edge machine tool and conveyor technology.

Leveraging relationships with industry leaders Tornos, Eurotech and Jorgensen Conveyor and Filtration Solutions, Mitotec has doubled its workforce from 50 employees to more than 100 since 2019 and expanded its revenue significantly from $14 million to $30 million from 2023 to 2024.

“We’ve taken the mentality of our company from essentially a mom-and-pop type of shop to one that has the personnel and capital to offer high-value solutions to our existing customers and potential new customers,” said Mitotec Sales Manager Warren Schoenborn.

Mitotec’s first stage to adding value for its customers centers on engineering. When initially evaluating a project, the company’s engineers take a deep dive with customer plans and specifications to see where adjustments can be made to tighten tolerances and make a better overall product.

“What that does is instill confidence in our customers not only to give us that project, but give us more of their difficult, high-precision work, which is where we really thrive,” Schoenborn said.

To perform the work Mitotec was after, the company purchased several Tornos MultiSwiss eight-spindle Swiss turning machines and has more recently added Eurotech Elite multiple turret machines for fast production of small, complex parts. However, unlike many shops that use Swiss-style machines, Mitotec optimized its processes for high-volume, high-mix production. In little more than two years, the company mastered quick, efficient changeovers that provided Mitotec the ability to perform tight-tolerance work for several different customers. Just as importantly, it gave the company added manufacturing capacity to selectively target and acquire additional customers that fit the company’s high-precision profile.

“That’s one of the things our company does that sets us apart,” Schoenborn said. “We’re always looking for innovative ways to make things better. The traditional shop will buy one machine to run 10,000 parts and then several more to get 100,000. Before you know it, you’ve got a fleet of machines and employees running one product for one customer, and that’s a lot of stress on the system. So our team is very creative.

“It gives us a really good reason to bring in additional technology to figure out and then offer it to some of our other customers and prospects. So it’s really about capitalizing on the latest technology and not just machining on a Swiss like everybody else does,” he said.

Robots, cobots and lights-out production are also large parts of the company’s success in optimizing its production.

Scaling for maximum production has presented challenges, however. Case in point: increasing titanium baffle production for firearms suppressors from 200 suppressors to 25,000 per week. Since each suppressor contains 11 baffles, Mitotec was machining a tremendous amount of titanium, and that required a major modification to its production line.

Titanium is well known for its long, stringy chip formation during machining. Those “bird nests” of chips were consistently jamming the standard conveyors on Mitotec’s Eurotech machines. Additionally, the titanium powder created by machining the baffles clogged coolant filters, causing reservoirs to overflow and dump coolant on the shop floor. Mitotec’s high-precision, high-production model was quickly being drowned in a swamp of titanium chips and coolant.

A fortunate encounter with Jorgensen, however, provided a solution with Jorgensen’s EcoFilter^® series of self-cleaning conveyors.

“We were looking for a solution for the titanium chips packing the coolant lines coming from our coolant tanks,” said Mitotec Engineering Manager Adam Pouillie. “We discovered Jorgensen, and they showed us their EcoFilter^® product.”

The EcoFilter^® 200 self-cleaning conveyor enables efficient filtration of fine chips to 200-microns nominal at over 98% efficiency. EcoFilter^® conveyors use a two-stage chip removal and filtration process that carries out large chips on a hinged or scraper belt. Fine chips flow with used coolant between the belt runs to a flow-through EcoFilter^® cell where they are separated from the coolant. Then, clean coolant is discharged to the coolant tank while filtered fines are brushed from the filter screen and flow to the bottom of the conveyor, where they are picked up by the belt cleats and discharged. By dramatically decreasing the number of chips migrating to a machine tool coolant tank, Mitotec significantly reduced downtime for tank cleaning and maintenance while improving pump, tooling and coolant life.

“It was a pretty easy process,” Pouillie said. “We discussed our issues, and they walked us through the conveyor design and its capabilities. The communication and customer service has been nothing short of excellent.”

For titanium processing, Jorgensen’s conveyors have been a game changer for Mitotec.

“It was definitely a no-brainer for us to continue to get these conveyors on our equipment,” Schoenborn said. “Because without it, it really does take us to a screeching halt and make a mess with coolant everywhere.”

Mitotec now has seven EcoFilter^® conveyors on its multi-turret and Swiss-style machines, and the company says it would rather let a machine tool sit idle until a Jorgensen conveyor can be installed rather than deal with the downtime and coolant flooding.

Mitotec is leveraging its unique brand of high-volume, high-mix production for added throughput and increased capacity to scale its operations. By adapting the best technology it can acquire, the company is poised to continue its phenomenal growth trajectory well into the next decade.

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