Guests who tour the Wiscraft plant may be surprised by many things that they see – an individual navigating a computer via JAWS speech software and a keyboard rather than a mouse, someone who is totally blind applying stickers to a component with machine precision, or perhaps someone entering production information without leaving their workstation on a mobile computer kiosk; however, most are simply stunned when they enter our machine shop.
The idea that people who are blind could work in a machine shop environment – which is generally believed to pose significantly greater hazards than your typical office – simply amazes most guests. The truth is, our machine shop staff and employees are producing quality parts and meeting industry standards for quality and delivery every day, and they have been doing so since the machine shop opened many decades ago. We just do things a little differently. For example , the same JAWS speech software you see on our Communication Center computers is also running on one of our CNC machines supporting accessibility for a legally-blind operator, and after each part is produced the operator checks the quality using a micrometer… that talks!
We’re very excited to announce that in September our machine shop had a record sales month – exceeding budgeted sales by nearly 50%! As many people are aware, the Great Recession hit the manufacturing sector quite hard, and we’ve heard some accounts that as many as 30% of area machine shops went under as a result. Now, because we were able to survive the turmoil, we’re finding that demand for machined parts is coming back strong.
Our ISO 9001:2008 certified machine shop has capabilities that include, but are not limited to the following:
- CNC Milling
- CNC Turning
- High Speed CNC Drill and Tap
- ID Keyway or Spline Broaching
- Sawing
- Laser Non-Metallic Cut and Etching
- Manual Machining