Case Study | KL Engineering

"Palletized Automation—
At this Point, I Really Don't See An Alternative To It"

A Trinity AX Customer Story

When Kevin Lynch, Owner of KL Engineering, talks about automation, it’s not theoretical. It’s operational. It’s practical. And it’s essential.

Located in Morgan Hill, California, KL Engineering is a contract manufacturer that evolved from a design and integration firm into a vertically integrated production operation. Founded in 2009, the company originally outsourced all fabrication and machining, focusing instead on equipment integration and testing.

Over time, that changed as customer projects moved from prototypes into repeat builds—10, 20, 50, even 100 complex assemblies—manual processes could no longer keep pace. The volume demands began to outstrip the team’s ability to load and unload machines efficiently.

That’s when automation became necessary.

“The obvious advantage of automation is that you can run through the night and through the weekend,” Kevin explains. “You get extended run periods without staffing a second or third shift.”

But for KL Engineering, the real breakthrough went beyond lights-out machining.

By implementing Trinity’s palletized automation systems, they effectively decoupled operator time from machine cycle time. Operators are no longer tied to a single work cell. They’re no longer waiting on machines. And the machines are no longer waiting on them. “We don’t have operators standing around waiting, and on the flip side, we don’t have the machines waiting.”

Today, KL staffs the machining portion of the business with just two employees—a level of efficiency that would not be possible without automation.

KL Engineering’s journey toward palletized automation followed its larger shift toward vertical integration.

The company first brought welding and waterjet cutting in-house. Then CNC machining followed. As production quantities increased, the need for scalable, efficient automation became clear.

“We didn’t want to add a lot of overhead programming robots, designing end effectors, and interfacing with individual parts that may never come back.”

For a high-mix contract manufacturer, direct part handling with custom robotic tooling would have required significant engineering time—time better spent making parts.

A palletized solution was the answer.

KL Engineering’s first system was the Trinity AX5 HD, paired with a Haas UMC-750 SS. It immediately covered a wide range of part sizes and applications.

The transition was straightforward. They ran the same fixturing. The same G-code. The same machining strategy.

The only change? The parts were loaded by the automation system instead of manually. “It was a fairly seamless transition.” stated Kevin

About a year later, KL added a second system—the AX2 Duo, paired with two Haas VF-4 SS machines. This gave them additional flexibility and the ability to shift work between platforms efficiently. In both cases, the systems were productive almost immediately after installation.

“It was a solution we could drop on the floor and be productive with almost immediately.”

"Palletized Automation—At this Point, I Really Don't See An Alternative To It"

"Palletized Automation—
At this Point, I Really Don't See An Alternative To It"