Scotchman continues updating

The new Mighty Viper PMC-4122 vertical machining center purchased by Scotchman Industries, Inc., Philip, arrived Monday, Oct. 26.

Not counting the crating material, pallets and other shipping items, the machine’s various parts weighed 106,900 pounds. Orion Rigging out of Sioux Falls was hired to use a specialty forklift just to unload the machinery from the lowboy delivery semi-trucks.

The new machining center will take approximately a month for assembly, installation and testing before taking over for various other, outdated machines. Scotchman Industries has spent, off and on, the last six to seven months in getting ready for the huge machine. The center will take up a significant amount of manufacturing floor space in the center of the manufacturing complex.

The Mighty Viper PMC-4122 vertical machining center was purchased from Productivity Inc., Plymouth, Minn.

The unit is a bridge mill, “Something totally different for us,” said Jerry Kroetch, president of Scotchman. It will replace two other machines completely, as well as eventually part or all of the responsibilities of some others. As a type of rail mill, it performs drilling, tapping and other mill work. It is an automated computer numerical control work center. It requires only one operator, thus saving manpower over multiple machines.

According to Kroetch, the cost to Scotchman’s is significant, but the results of such purchases increases the business’s capabilities and efficiency. It also benefits the community. Scotchman Industries has over $1.6 million of taxable interests so far in 2015. “We make a point that Philip gets every cent it can,” said Kroetch. “It’s all good. It all goes to the community, and that is good.”