NES October Employee Spotlight

Employee Spotlight

Alex Pingitore

Anyone who’s familiar with Alex Pingitore almost certainly knows:

His primary role within the custom bearing manufacturing channel at Napoleon Engineering Services is in hard turn. In fact, nearly 15 years after starting at NES (his work anniversary falls on Nov. 29), Pingitore has essentially mastered this procedure.

Made it an artform.

Hard turning is a manufacturing process used to machine parts already heat-treated and hardened. It involves using a single point cutting tool on a lathe to remove material from a rotating, hardened work piece to achieve final dimensions and surface finish.

For Pingitore, much of his day centers around programming his Mazak CNC lathe for the next job order. This includes situating the workholding, installing the necessary tooling and, perhaps the most important step, setting up the gauging.

Hard turning itself, Pingitore noted, is “very different” from the grind cell in that he’s touching the entire surface of that bearing ring. “Where grind is usually holding one or two dimensions,” he said, “I’m holding eight, 10, 12, 20 simultaneously, so there’s a lot of set up involved; it’s a very intricate process, and that’s what makes it interesting.”

But that’s just one element of Pingitore’s daily routine.

And the skill it takes to hold those dimensions is only part of what makes his job interesting.

PINGITORE, ONE of NES’ lead machinists, feels his greatest sense of satisfaction from improving the company’s existing manufacturing processes. And it’s his ability to do so at a high level – in addition to his leadership, guidance and experience on the plant floor – that made him so worthy of our October employee spotlight.

“Everything that I’m doing – or anyone else that needs help – (I’m) constantly trying new things, new tooling, new techniques,” he said. “When I first came here, I’d done zero hard turning, but now I think I have it pretty well mastered, and it’s all self-taught. I didn’t have anyone to go ask; I’m learning this stuff all on my own. It’s nice to pass it down to other people too.”

It’s these continual opportunities to improve, Pingitore said, that truly make his job interesting. “It’s very rare when I do the same thing twice the same way,” he said. “I’m always looking for a way to make it better, faster or how can I make my job easier, which in turn leads to efficiency.”

One such example materialized just recently.

NES received a couple of new height stands for the shop floor – items that were expensive but came with some “chintzy little plastic knobs on them.” Pingitore asked his bosses if he could make some “fancy, nicer” knobs for them. It was another instance of him making the personal effort to better the plant floor.

“(Vice president of business operations) Chris Truman’s great about that,” Pingitore pointed out. “He’s typically very flexible about letting me try things or order tooling. He kind of lets me do what I think will work, and that’s what keeps things interesting for me.”

PINGITORE SAID it feels good to be entrusted with that responsibility and to have the freedom to make those calls. And he’s earned that right through his years of hard work, innovative approach and tangible results. To the Allegany native, “a bearing’s a bearing” whether it’s going into a rocket or a dump truck.” On his end, those parts are all the same. “But whatever I can do to make the best possible product is what I’m going do to.”

“That goes back to trying to do the best job I can because that makes it easier for a lot of people down the line,” he said. “If I’m not holding race locations, that just makes it a pain for the next couple of operations, so (I’m) constantly doing things to try to improve all those processes. … And actually, just recently, I’ve come a long way just with some tooling and some different approaches, and it’s satisfying.”

IN HIS free time, Pingitore enjoys fishing, hunting and bow hunting especially. (“But real bow hunting with the compound; not all those crossbows that everyone is using,” he insisted). At this point, after hunting the woods near his home in Cuba, he has two deer in the freezer and ideally will have 2-3 more by the end of the season.

“That’s been my life for the last month or so outside of work,” he said.

But his focus remains on the expert machining he provides for Napoleon Engineering Services.

“Alex is a true leader in the lathe department – a wizard on the Mazak and a driving force behind our precision and productivity,” Truman said. “He not only delivers exceptional work on the machines but also takes initiative in working with vendors to ensure we have the right tooling and resources in place. Alex’s leadership, craftsmanship, and dedication set the standard for quality and performance across the shop.

Truman added: “Alex’s secret passion is golf — the only place he effortlessly produces more chips than at the Mazak.”