Willington Nameplate in Stafford Springs, CT manufactures metal engraved nameplates and Identification tags for a wide range of customers from aerospace and defense to Gillette Stadium – they actually produced all of the seat tags for “Casa de Brady”. Their metal nameplates and ID tags are made from a range of materials including aluminum, brass and stainless steel.
Willington Nameplate was founded over 50 years ago by Marcel Goepfert and day-to-day operations have been run by his son, Mike Goepfert, since 1990. Since that time, there have been many changes and a lot of growth. This includes a critical decision in 1999 to purchase their first DATRON high-speed milling machine.
Willington Nameplate’s Fabrication Group Leader, Jamie Vale Da Serra, recounts this story saying that, “Prior to installing the DATRON machine we used a manual kick process.” He goes on to say, “We needed to get away from that process because we needed a tolerance higher than .005”. Vale Da Serra refers to the DATRON milling machine as a “set it and forget it” piece of equipment that runs unattended freeing up staff to attend to other tasks.
Quick job setup and the ability of the DATRON machine to run unattended are the result of a number of integrated features – all operating in concert. This starts with integrated vacuum table or vacuum chuck technology that allows the operator to quickly setup the workpiece – for nameplates this is generally sheet material such as aluminum, stainless steel or Metalphoto®. An integrated probe for part location and measurement also speeds up job setup and enables uniformity by automatically compensating for material irregularities like surface variance. An automatic tool changer with an integrated tool-length sensor provides a full stable (and wide variety) of necessary tooling that can automatically be changed at given intervals and/or when a tool is broken.
Vale Da Serra says, “Consistency is there with the DATRONs from the first to the last they all measure the same, whereas with the manual process human error is possible that could give you a deviation.”
The growth at Willington Nameplate is not limited to adding DATRON machines, the company has recently purchased three other companies in New England, thereby expanding sales by 35% in five years. With a staff of more than 80 people, Willington Nameplate has now set their sights on additional acquisitions elsewhere in the United States.
