A Little Better: Fox Valley Tool & Die

In northeast Wisconsin, just south of Green Bay, lies the town of Kaukauna. With a population of 17,000, it’s home to riverside views, an abundance of nature trails, and a tool & die/job shop that’s been going strong for six decades.

Founded in 1966, Fox Valley Tool & Die, Inc. (FVTD) has been a Wisconsin manufacturing staple ever since. Lenny Sleger, Tooling Manager, has worked at FVTD for 38 of those years. 

“This industry is constantly changing, and we like to think of ourselves as a top-notch shop,” said Sleger. “We chase high-end, tight-tolerance parts. And we’re never afraid to invest in new technology to help us get it done.”

FVTD is a true full-service powerhouse. With three facilities and 165 employees, they handle everything in-house, including precision machining, jig grinding, EDM, stamping, water jet, and design engineering. 

True to Sleger’s word, when they couldn’t get the holding strength and gripping arrangement needed from their vise supplier, they set their sights on SMW Autoblok.

Holding true

Fox Valley Tool & Die first partnered with SMW Autoblok when their existing vises couldn’t grip with enough clamping force. 

Enter the IMG vise. The main benefit of this highly flexible vise is that it features three clamping styles in a single unit: self-centering, double, and fixed. It’s a fantastic modular workholding system that’s ideal for high-precision and 5-axis machining applications, but one feature stood out to FVTD. 

The IMG vise is available with SMW Autoblok’s SinterGrip jaws, which use replaceable carbide inserts to bite directly into raw workpiece material. They require a bite as low as 2.5 mm without compromising clamping force, eliminating the need to premachine workpieces with costly dovetail preparation. 

“The carbide grippers were the biggest advantage,” said Sleger. “The old way, we were limited to 3 mm of gripping area on parts.”

They’re now using IMG vises across multiple applications throughout the shop. When asked how the vises are working out, Sleger said, “We’re having really good luck with it,” before adding with a smile, “We haven’t thrown any parts out yet.”

With up to 50 kN of clamping force and SinterGrip jaws, those parts aren’t going anywhere. 

APS smashing setup times at FVTD

For their pallet pools feeding Mazak machining centers, part setup times can make or break job profitability. “Not being a production house, the ability to set parts up quicker is critical,” said Sleger. “When we’re only running 2 to 5 of each part, the setup time per part is a much greater percentage of the total manufacturing cost than it would be in a production run.”

FVTD’s SMW Autoblok distributor, Valley Tool Inc, introduced them to the APS (Automatic Positioning System) from SMW Autoblok. The APS zero-point clamping system is a universal interface system for quick changing of fixtures with repeatability of less than 0.005 mm. It features a three-jaw clamping design, spring-actuated locking and TURBO-assisted pull-down forces up to 26 kN. Fixtures can be set up offline, delivering a massive reduction in setup times.

“Over 38 years here at Fox Valley Tool & Die, I’ve set up a lot of fixtures,” said Sleger. “With the APS, all zeros are set. Before, we had to bolt parts to the tombstone and reset the offsets. This system eliminates the need for that.”

And the result? “On average, fixture set-up times have been reduced by 90%.”

The continuous improvement at FVTD

Fox Valley Tool & Die didn’t get to where they are by accident. Their expertise, work ethic, and willingness to solve difficult problems have allowed them to survive and thrive since the mid-60s.

In SMW Autoblok, they found a partner who’s equally willing to dive headfirst into challenges and conquer them the right way. If you’re looking for that kind of workholding partner, talk to us about the challenge your shop is facing.