TOOLING TAKES POLE POSITION

Quick, what is Chip Ganassi's real first name? If you know the answer, you also know the Pittsburgh native and Duquesne University graduate has racing in his blood, having raced motocross, Champ cars, and Indy cars, competing in the Indianapolis 500 five times. As the owner and president of Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Inc. (Concord, NC) with Felix Sabates, he oversees teams on NASCAR's Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series as well as the Indy Racing League and Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) circuits.

Racers are innovators, and Ganassi was among the pioneers in creating an advanced research and development group that supports all of his race programs. He is recognized as one of the first team owners to create successful driver and pit crew development programs. Throughout his entire career as an owner, he has continued to raise the innovation bar with a constant search for a better way to do things.

A trip through his Concord garage and some words with the team behind the driving teams – his machinists and machine-shop support crew – confirm how important the latest tooling and equipment are to the racing effort.
Tom Warga, a CNC machinist II, works on an Okuma MC-V4020 vertical machining center that makes firebottle brackets from 7075 aluminum bar stock. These parts are critical to each car's fire-suppression system. "There are 50 cars on the Ganassi floor and each one must have a bracket," says Warga. And the entire fire-suppression system must be replaced – brackets and all – in the case of a wreck, so parts must be produced quickly and on hand constantly.

Part of Warga's tooling arsenal includes the Hanita VariMILL I high-performance end mill, square-end HEC end mills for slotting and finishing, and half-inch SE (sculptured edge) drills for high-speed holemaking, all from Kennametal Inc. "7075 aluminum is strong. The goal is to produce the lightest, strongest bracket possible," explains Warga. "Turnaround time is less than three days on all parts we produce, so chip removal is the key, getting the chips out of the slot quickly. The performance and quality we get from our Kennametal tools play a vital role on all our components."

REAR SWAY BARS
Lead CNC Machinist Dale Lambeth makes sets of rear sway bars out of mild steel one at a time under 24-hour turnaround constraints. "Most of our CNC machines keep a standard package of milling and drilling tools, as more than half the parts we produce require those operations," he says. Lambeth calls the RPF face mills a "do-all tool" that, along with HEC end mills, the SE drill and others can be pushed to new limits with their new machine tools.
CNC Machinist II Kevin Greene makes wheel sensor assemblies out of 7075 aluminum. Since time is critical during testing, these assemblies have multiple lead threads so sensors can be removed and reinstalled with a single twist. Greene relies on KM25 toolholders with indexable KC5410 inserts and Top Notch ID groove inserts to for the turning, grooving, holemaking, threading, and other operations necessary to produce these unique parts.

MORE TIME FOR MACHINING
This machine shop runs two shifts, so these are only a few samples of the parts the shop is constantly turning out. Keeping the focus on the machining, and not searching for the necessary tools, is a ToolBOSS automated tool management system. "We can be asked to make or modify anything at any time," says Ben Johnson, machine shop group leader. "Just maintaining and restocking tools could take an entire day. The tool management system does it automatically. This means we can stage the tool assembly for every job. As machinists come on, the job is set, and when they get the next job, they can see the tools used in the past. Not only does this ensure uniformity, tools are even inspected and run the night before for quality control. We focus on making the parts, not tool management."

Not only that, Johnson can manage Chip Ganassi Racing's tool needs directly from his PC to the ToolBOSS. "We don't keep a large number of any one item, but always have a large variety of tools to choose from, because our guys are always tinkering to make our cars go faster. As our CNC machinists make their programs, each guy has full access to current inventory levels with the tool management system. And we always have the right tooling in stock because ordering and restocking is automatic."

An approach "Chip" (originally named Floyd, after his father) Ganassi would surely recognize.

Chip Ganassi Racing Inc., 8500 Westmoreland Road, Concord, NC 28027, 704-662-9642, www.chipganassiracing.com.

Kennametal Inc., 1600 Technology Way, Latrobe, PA 15650-5274, 724-539-5000, www.kennametal.com.