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Northrop Grumman Logan Adds Capabilities To Its Machine Shop With Their Milltronics MB20
Tucked away on the slopes of the Bear River Mountains in Northern Utah is a town called Logan. The vibrant, highly educated town, about 82 miles north of Salt Lake City, is home to Utah State University. It is also home to an R&D optics test center with about a dozen employees in a facility that resides within the state university innovation campus.
In this facility, the employees returned from the holidays and just turned in their badges for new ones, this time with the name ‘NGC’, short for Northrop Grumman Corporation. NGC Logan team members are no strangers to transition; in fact nearly half have been employed by multiple employers without actually changing jobs. First, there was a small business called Space Systems Engineering that merged with another small company called Mission Research. The merged entity was purchased by ATK Space Systems, and
operated under the name ATK Mission Research. In 2015, this entity became part of Orbital/ATK, and in 2018, through yet another acquisition, they became employees of yet another industry giant.
Today, this largely intact core team in Logan is employed by Northrop Grumman Corporation, ranked #118 in Fortune 500 companies for 2018. NGC Logan manufactures a wide variety of optical sensors, test and evaluation systems, and cryogenic optics and components for customers in the aerospace and defense industries. In fact, when the business was a small private entity, its customers included many of the same Fortune 500 customers it supports today. Craig Ward, 28 year veteran of the company, says,
​“In the early years, Northrop Grumman was one of our large customers; it’s ironic that today we are owned by them.” Still NGC Logan continues to support many customers outside of Northrop Grumman; their customers span the United States, and NGC Logan's Remotely Controlled
even a small amount of international exposure. Craig says, “Our customers come to us Motorized Cryogenic Valve
to help solve a variety of complex electro-optical problems.” He adds that while most of NGC Logan’s instruments are ground-based test equipment for space rated sensors, they even have some products that find application on space borne payloads.
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Scott Anderson, Journeyman machinist, says, “We support about 50 different projects for a dozen or so customers in a given year, and nearly all of our projects are R&D related. This means when we
are manufacturing a part or complete assembly for a client, it is typically in volumes of 1 or 2.” He adds that they do make a few items that deliver as a finished product in much larger quantities for a number of their customers, one such device is a stepper motor that operates in a vacuum at cryogenic temperatures.
​An NGC Logan Cryogenic Stepper Motor

​Dave Higham, long-term employee who manages NGC Logan, says, “Our test instrumentation includes both point source and dynamic scene projection systems which utilize a number of different optical forms including collimation projection optics, afocal relays and optical reimagers.” He continued, “Our technologies span both reflective and refractive/diffractive optics that can be used at room temperature down to cryogenic temperatures. These optics coupled with our other opto-mechanical systems allow us to provide our customers an environment where they can perform relative or absolute calibrations for their sensors under test.”​
A Mini-Cryogenic Gas
Actuated Vavle Used To
Control Liquid Helium

The NGC Machine Shop
NGC Logan has its own machine shop, and most machining, welding and assembly is done in-house. Craig says, “I never cease to be amazed by the what our guys can manufacture.” Scott adds, “We can pretty much do everything in-house, but have in the past outsourced machining of larger parts.”
Scott says that the NGC Logan machine shop has a number of older
machines, and for the most part, these machines work well in an R&D environment. “Last year, we were funded to purchase a new machine - a CNC mill”, he says. The team evaluated different options for a CNC mill designed for tool room applications. Scott says, “We purchased the Milltronics MB20 3 Axis Quill Head Bed Mill last August, from the local dealer, Smith Machinery, and it is phenomenal for our requirements. We needed a much larger travel than what our current machines offered, and the MB20 offers travel of 40” x 20” x 24”. We just machined a 4’ square plate on the MB20, and we couldn’t have done this with our older machines.”
He added, “There are so many reasons why we think the Milltronics is outstanding:
• The Milltronics control is awesome — it is so intuitive and user friendly. Everyone
in the shop wants to run it, so I don’t get near as much time on it as I would like.
• We love the removable table chip guard: It is designed to allow the machinist to
easily remove the guarding. This feature offers the best solution to chip and
coolant containment in normal working conditions, and when an oversized
work piece needs machining, the guarding is easily removed allowing oversized
parts to hang over the table.”
• We can now machine much larger parts, parts that previously we had to
outsource.
• The Milltronics training process was outstanding, and our instructor was
extremely knowledgeable.”

Prior to purchasing their Milltronics CNC mill, the NGC Logan team had purchased another manufacturer’s CNC tool room mill through another dealer. Scott says, “Our first purchase experience didn’t work out — from the sales and installation process to the actual machine itself not performing to our expectations.” He adds, “We actually had the dealer take the machine back, and that is when we
invited Smith Machinery to come in to propose their solution.”
Scott says, “I’ve been through installations in the past, and I never had the sales person show up for the installation. David Soares did...
Smith Machinery is totally different... they do what they say and their follow through is great. You just don’t see this often.”
The Milltronics line is sold and serviced by Smith Machinery,
a 59 year-old distributor of a variety of advanced manufacturing
technologies, and Sales Engineer David Soares supported Kurtis, Machinist pictured above, sums it up well,
NGC Logan with their purchase. Scott says he is so pleased with his "I love this Milltronics machine."
experience with Smith Machinery and the Milltronics that he would be
​happy to speak to potential purchasers of the Milltronics Machine.

​Clark Smith, 4th generation family member/ owner of ISO
9001 certified Smith Machinery, says, “We recently added the
Milltronics line to our portfolio of precision manufacturing
machine tools. Milltronics is based out of Minnesota and has
outstanding machines for any application ranging from tool
Room Machines, Vertical Machining Centers, Bridge Mills to
CNC Lathes. All Milltronics models come complete with easyto-
use Milltronics controls that feature solid model graphics
and the ability to program conversationally or with G/M code.”
Scott, pictured above with Kurtis, says,
“If I were purchasing a ‘Bridgeport Type’
machine again, I would definitely select
Milltronics and Smith Machinery.”

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