At Vulcan Industries Corporation, we continually monitor and improve tooling processes to provide faster and better service to our customers. The following case study demonstrates how tooling redesign increased our output by 80% while significantly reducing our customers’ costs.
Project Overview
• Industry: Motorcycle
• Processes: 2 station manual transfer tube forming die
• Company Background: Vulcan internal process improvement
• Challenge: Increasing production demand required a new process to improve our tube forming capacity
• Assessment: Additional production hours satisfied the increase in demand, however, concerns about the potential for future increases prompted a more thorough review of our manufacturing process.
The Vulcan Solution – Redesign of Tube Forming Tooling to Consolidate 2 Forming Stations, Automatic Part Loading, and Unloading
A significant increase in the demand for pushrod tubes required us to ramp up our production capacity. The existing process utilized a 2-station die to form both ends of a piece of tubing. This required a manual transfer between two forming stations by a full-time press operator. From our process review, it became obvious that a significant increase in the production rate could be realized by eliminating one forming station.
The forming tool was redesigned to consolidate the two forming motions into one by using a combination of double acting cam driven slides to form the tube in the required sequence. This design would only require loading one station, thereby, simplifying the process by reducing motions as well as increasing production rates.
We enhanced the new tool design with automatic loading and unloading of parts. Tubes were stacked into a magazine that provides a constant supply of parts to the loading mechanism allowing the forming press to continually operate.
The Final Result – 80% Increase in Output, Decreased Cost for Customer
The new process designed by Vulcan allowed for an 80% increase in the output of the forming press and allowed for a decrease in the cost of the product for our customers.
At Vulcan Industries, we engage in continuous innovation to improve our production quality and capacity. All our solutions aim to reduce manufacturing costs and provide superior customer service. Contact us today to find out how we can help with your motorcycle manufacturing solutions.