Compass Acquires State-of-the-Art New Machinery at R&D Machine
OLDSMAR, FL – May 28, 2025 – R&D Machine, a Compass Precision operating company specializing in precision parts maintaining tight tolerances, announced Wednesday the purchase and installment of a 9-axis, multi-tasking machine with a robot loader.
The equipment acquisition could be best described in two words – “game changer.”
That’s what R&D Machine VP & GM Justin Kovscek (pictured above, second from right (also shown, from left, Tony Cattery, Corey Kunkel, Thom Amend, Justin and Mark Adams)) called the new machine. So did production manager Thom Amend, who has worked at R&D Machine for 22 years.
“I think the whole team is pretty excited about it,” Justin said. “First major investment after the acquisition by Compass and probably one of the more interesting investments in machines that has ever been done at R&D.”
Justin became general manager at R&D three years ago. Pretty much since he started, he’s been planning for this type of machinery acquisition. It finally came to fruition to begin his fourth year at the operating company.
Even after identifying which new state-of-the-art machinery was going to best help the operating company continue satisfying customer needs, R&D’s employees continued meticulously planning for months to prepare for the machine’s arrival.
“Before the machine was on-order, we had to make sure it would actually fit in the building, and double check we ordered the correct machine,” R&D operations manager Katlin Pennison said. “It’s always a little bit stressful when you are pulling a 22,000-pound machine off of a semi-truck. But I’d say it went as smoothly as we could hope for.
“It’s in the door, the robot is in, and we’re just ready to get everything going.”
The new machine is about 12 feet long and eight feet wide. At that size, it rivals the VF-6 R&D has, which is the largest mill on the company’s shop floor.
But the new 9-axis machine will give the Compass operating company more flexibility than it’s ever had. It will cut down on the number of operations needed to complete parts R&D Machine has been making for decades.
“We have a lot of parts that we’ve run as far back as 20 years. Some of them go from lathe to mill to lathe. I’m really excited about being able to streamline these parts and not having them have to be touched so often,” said Thom.
“But not only that, these parts could go through a machine that is tremendously busy. The first machine it runs through might not have any backlog but then the next operation has four jobs in front of it.
“So, with this new machine, we’re not having to stress about any kind of backlog.”
The machine will also run lights-out overnight and on weekends.
“We’re looking forward to having the ability to take complicated parts that used to take five ops or more with complicated fixtures, and basically turn it into one operation,” said R&D programmer engineer Tony Cattery. “It’s going to allow us to take a very complex setup process, programming process and fixturing process and turn it into something that’s still a very complicated program, but much more simplified because you can do one-and-done.”
The robot loader will allow the machine to run unmanned. With that aspect of the machine, R&D became the first Compass operating company with a robot loading parts.
But while the robotic arm will make R&D Machine more efficient, it will not replace a single employee.
“I do want to make one thing clear, though, because I think people sometimes read about adding a robot and assume this is about replacing employees. That’s not the case,” Justin said. “We’re trying to expand the business, and we’re going to expand through technology. No one is going anywhere.
“It’s natural to be wary of new technology, but this is about progress and opportunity, not downsizing.”
Compass uses technology at all of its operating companies to meet customer needs. The purchase of the robotic arm is just the latest example.
“The ability to take a job that has multiple ops and cut it down to one or two is going to be tremendous,” said machinist Corey Kunkel.
“Historically, R&D could only do simple milling in the turning department. Now, I have the ability to do complex milling and turning in the same machine in the lathe department. The new machine is probably also going to be about 50 times more accurate than any current machine we have. It’s also more powerful.”
“Compass loves investing in new equipment and technology,” added Compass CEO Gary Holcomb. “Doing more operations in a single set-up, and running unattended in a lights-out mode, improves our productivity, quality, and lead-times. Everyone wins.”
R&D Machine operates from its 10,000 -square-foot shop near Tampa, FL. It focuses on parts with complicated geometries for the aerospace, defense and space markets. The operating company is AS 9100D/ISO and 9001:2015 certified.
R&D was founded in 1992. Compass Precision acquired R&D as its sixth operating company in April 2022. Since then, Compass has added Strom Manufacturing (July 2022) and Bergeron Machine (April 2023). Additional acquisitions are expected.
R&D has developed long-term, in-depth relationships with its customers and uses its milling and turning capabilities, especially state-of-the-art 5-axis machines, to satisfy customer needs.