Contact us today:
Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
ATLANTA — Siemens Industry, Inc. announced today a value-added service for its popular line of 1FK7 servomotors. Using a configurable options menu to build exactly the motor required, customers can now place an order for any Siemens 1FK7 servomotor and have it drop-shipped in three weeks. Thanks to the diverse range of options available, this new service applies to over 100,000 possible configurations. All compact (CT) and high-dynamic (HD) servomotors in the 1FK7 family are included.
With a total of 6150 option pairings and 18 color choices, servomotors in the 1FK7 family can be configured to 110,700 possible designs. Options include stall torque and RPM rating, encoder style and bit resolution, holding brake functionality, shaft style, IP rating, AC line supply voltage and electronic nameplate recognition via Drive-Cliq®. 1FK7 geared motor options are not included in this program presently.
Siemens is now making this service available to customers in the U.S. market. With the motion controller Simotion® and the drive system Sinamics® S stocked in the United States, Siemens is also able to supply complete motion control systems in three weeks’ lead time.
According to Arun Jain, general manager, Siemens Motion Control Business, “We have made the commitment to significantly shorten servomotor delivery times. The 1FK7 family has a wide user base for motion control applications, so we have selected this very important line for our major customer service initiative. We have devised and implemented an entirely new protocol for motor manufacturing and production at our factories.”
For more information, visit www.usa.siemens.com/motioncontrol.
For specific product information and inquiries, call (800) 879-8079 ext. Marketing Communications or send an e-mail to: SiemensMTBUMarCom.industry@siemens.com.
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…REDUCES TIME TO PART, IMPROVES PRODUCT PERFORMANCE…WATCH VIDEO, TEST DRIVE AND BUY IT TODAY!
Special introductory price of only $995!
Excel-LentTM software from longtime builder of gears and gearboxes, quickly determines optimum product parameters for various industries; time savings in hundreds of engineering hours being realized. Excel-lent software is on sale through the website.
Please visit www.excel-lentsoftware.com and see a demo of how easy it is to design a new gearbox. The most interesting section to design engineers will be “Design”. With minimal input, the program will calculate the number of teeth in the pinion and gear, DP or Module, face width etc. required to transmit the power, within a few seconds. The calculated data can be exported to the “Analysis” section for complete analysis with clicking the “Transfer Data “ tab on screen. Calculated capacity will be very close to the required power, on the very first try.
Also, the Excel-Lent software’s dimensioning program is the most versatile program available on the market. Non-standard center distance or matching a new gear to an existing gear is as easy as clicking the indicated option. The material tables provided have all the commercially available materials listed, with heat treat and mechanical properties to allow the user to choose any gear material from the list to fit their need.
In all three sections, sample input data are stored for the users to get started. Click on the samples opens the samples table. Clicking one of the samples fills the input screen with data. To run the sample click “Calculate”. We welcome comments and suggestions about our software at any time.
In response to the gear market’s need for optimization software, which has been lacking for many years, Excel-LentTM gear/gearbox design and analysis software has been developed by Excel Gear, Inc. (Roscoe, IL) and written in Visual Basic.Net. This software has been written by engineers who also design and manufacture gears for their own use, according to company president N.K. “Chinn” Chinnusamy.
Mr. Chinnusamy further comments, “Although commercial software has long been available in the gear industry, it has been too expensive or too complicated to be used by engineers without specialized gear design knowledge. Our software is specifically designed with a user-friendly interactive input screen providing defaults and options in accordance with the AGMA 2001 standard (American Gear Manufacturers Association).” The users of Excel-Lent software can easily navigate through the input screens to edit, analyze and produce reports on the optimum gear and gearbox design for various industrial and other applications.
“This software is not designed for any specific industry,” continues Chinnusamy. It can be used for machine tools, heavy materials handling equipment or even the wind turbine industry. For the wind turbine industry, for example, the designer needs a full understanding of all the operating loads on the gear members to arrive at the required power rating.
The key calculations performed are the AGMA power rating and load calculations, including bending strength geometry factor (J) and pitting resistance geometry factors (I). Output from the software is a single page of data printed in a format that is easy to read and interpret. Other commercial software typically prints five or six pages of information, which may be confusing to most design engineers unless they are gear experts, Chinnusamy further observed.
The users of Excel-Lent need not be familiar with AGMA standards to use this software. Those who are not gear engineers can also benefit from the gear engineering knowledge embedded in the software package.
Excel-Lent contains three sections – design, analysis and gear dimensions. Any of the sections can be used individually to run calculations. On a typical job, according to Excel Gear, hundreds of hours typically spent doing the calculations can be saved.
For further information, a test demo, pricing and purchase of this software, please visit www.excel-lentsoftware.com or contact:
EXCEL GEAR, INC. 11865 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073 Phone: 815-623-3414 Fax: 815-623-3314
Web: www.excelgear.com Email: sales@excelgear.com Attention: N.K. Chinnusamy
ABOUT EXCEL GEAR
Excel Gear brings over 50 years of machine tool experience to the design, manufacturing and quality analysis of its various gear, gearbox, fluid bearing, spindle, CNC gimbal head, nutator and special equipment production. ANSYS software for FEA on stress, strain, deflection, as well as modal analysis, time and frequency domain, our Spindle Analysis Program, MATLAB/Simulink, AutoCAD/SolidWorks/CADAM and other programs are all utilized to affect the best solutions to customer requirements. Excel also builds two-axis CNC gimbal heads with 20,000 RPM motorized spindle, 15,000 RPM cartridge type spindle assemblies and CNC rotary tables for major machine tool companies. Our high-accuracy gear grinding equipment produces to AGMA 15 (DIN 2) tolerances for quality that meets or exceeds the increasing customer demands for high-speed and high power transmission with smooth, quiet operation. Recently, the company has entered the emerging wind turbine market to provide various gears and gearbox components, as well as extensive maintenance and system performance engineering assistance.
PR agency: Tim Daro Bernard & Company 847-934-4500 tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Continue readingNo. 940 is a gas-fired 500°F (~260°C) walk-in oven from Grieve, currently used for curing brake friction materials at the customer’s facility. Workspace dimensions are 72” wide x 96” deep x 78” high. 400,000 BTU/HR are installed in a modulating natural gas burner inside the oven, while 700,000 BTU/HR are installed in a modulating natural gas afterburner. The oven’s initial exhaust passes through the 1400ºF afterburner. A 6000 CFM, 5-HP recirculating blower provides combination airflow to the workload.
The oven has 4” thick insulated walls, aluminized steel interior and exterior, plus a top-mounted heating chamber. All safety equipment required by IRI, FM and NFPA Standard 96 for gas-heated equipment is onboard, including a 650 CFM, ½-HP powered forced exhauster.
Controls on No. 872 include digital indicating temperature controllers and a 10” diameter circular chart recorder.
For more information, please contact:
THE GRIEVE CORPORATION
500 Hart Road
Round Lake, IL 60073-2898
Phone: (847) 546-8225
Fax: (847) 546-9210
Web: www.grievecorp.com
Email: sales@grievecorp.com
Attention: Frank Calabrese, VP
No. 872 is an electrically-heated 1000°F (~532°C) inert atmosphere oven from Grieve, currently used for annealing copper foil parts. 36 KW are installed in Incoloy sheathed tubular heating elements. Workspace dimensions are 36” wide x 48” deep x 36” high. A 2000 CFM, 2 HP recirculating blower provides universal airflow to the workload.
The oven has 8” thick insulated walls comprised of 2” of 1900°F block and 6” of 10 lb/cf density rockwool, plus an aluminized steel exterior and interior. A structural steel base is provided to raise the roller rails to a 20” loading height. These roller rails, mounted on the bottom of the oven workspace, are rated for 2000 lb. loads.
No. 872 features Grieve inert atmosphere oven construction, which includes a pressure regulator, flow meter, pressure gauge, internal high-temperature gasket, all welded construction in the doorway throat, air jacket on inner oven for cooling, ½” thick cellular silicone rubber atmosphere seal, blower shaft seal, positive latching door hardware, adjustable offset door hinges, outlet with pressure relief, interior seams welded gas-tight and all wall penetrations fitted with compression fittings.
A 975 CFM blower with automatic dampers pulls air through the air jacket on the inner oven for cooling, while the oven’s quick-purge system includes a 1200 SCFH flow meter and solenoid to open the outlet.
Controls onboard No. 872 include a recording and programming temperature recorder and fused disconnect switch.
For more information, please contact: THE GRIEVE CORPORATION, 500 Hart
Road, Round Lake, Illinois 60073-2835 USA. Phone: (847) 546-8225. Fax: (847) 546-
9210. Web: www.grievecorp.com. Email: sales@grievecorp.com. Attention: Frank
Calabrese.
Continue readingSimulation in action: casting quality, realizing innovation, reducing costs
The 1400 °C hot cast iron melt gushes through the gate into the mold. The movement of the flowing metal in the casting rigging and in the gradually filling mold for printing press cylinders and the subsequent solidification process are only chaotic and accidental, at first glance. The engineers of Amstetten Foundry, which forms part of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, are familiar with every detail of the casting system. They ran through the entire process in advance with simulation software. This enables them to predict precisely what the quality and characteristics of the cast iron cylinder will be, when it leaves the mold and is finally integrated in a Heidelberg printing press.
The Amstetten factory is one of the most up-to-date and efficient foundries in all of Europe. It acts as a center of excellence for the manufacture of castings, such as printing press side panels or cylinders, for the entire Heidelberg Group, which has a yearly revenue of three billion euros (~$4.4 billion) and 15,000 employees. The parts are core elements of the sheet-fed offset presses that Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, as the market leader, provides to users in the print media industry worldwide. “For our customers, just like for ourselves, the decision for Heidelberg is always a decision for quality,” is how Jürgen Schimmel, Director of Pattern & Casting Engineering describes the company’s vision, which he implements on a daily basis together with the 450 employees involved in casting production. This is because the quality of the individual presses to a significant degree depends on the quality of the castings produced in Amstetten.
Amstetten’s staff does not just produce castings for the Heidelberg Group: 50 external companies order large and small castings in differing batch sizes from the Amstetten foundry. Free market competition does not just make economic sense; it also serves to ensure that all processes are focused on achieving the highest quality, according to Schimmel.
“We have a clearly defined goal: economical casting production with consistently high quality. We see casting as part of an overarching process, beginning in design and finishing in reliably functioning, competitive end products,” Jürgen Schimmel says when formulating the “mission” of the Amstetten foundry. This level of quality is achieved by continuous IT support over the entire production process – from design of the components and patterns to the stable computer controlled melting and pouring processes.
Casting simulation bridges the gap between design and production
The planning department Pattern and Casting Engineering bridges the gap between computer-aided product design and actual production using MAGMASOFT®, the leading software for simulating casting processes. In doing so, the engineers rely on a technology regarded in the industry as one of the most important innovations of the last 50 years. This is because casting process simulation opens up the possibility of taking a look inside the former “black box” of the mold, to understand and predict precisely what happens during pouring and solidification of the melt. As a result, the foundrymen are in a position to accurately characterize the casting and production process as well as predict the casting’s properties before production has begun. What this means in practice is that the engineers are in a position to develop a casting with defined qualities at their computers. Correct production parameters for the casting process, with which the casting can be produced economically and reliably, can be developed with calculable quality. Before simulation technology became available, the individual development steps had to be taken “by hand” – from the part design to its realization as a casting by means of numerous, expensive test castings – and at the end there was still no guarantee that the process would indeed be reliable enough for the casting to be produced in the defined quality.
Save on costs, implement innovations
The foundry of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG makes use of simulation technology throughout the entire product and process development process, in order to save materials and costs in a highly price-sensitive market on the one hand, and to drive innovation and optimize component integration on the other.
For example, so-called return scrap is saved by “riserless” casting. Since the melt contracts when it cools, like any material, additional metal usually has to be introduced into the mold via the risers in order to avoid defects / porosity – so-called shrinkage cavities – in the casting. Appropriate design of the casting process reduces return scrap and material consumption. Before making the investment decision for MAGMASOFT®, the foundry had calculated that using simulation return scrap could be reduced by eight percent – which would lower annual material costs by a six-digit euro figure. Additional cost savings accrue from optimization over the entire process. Thanks to the calculated cooling times, it is safe to run production at the fastest possible rate.
For instance, it was possible to greatly reduce shrinkage cavities during the manufacture of a chain guide by reducing riser volumes and altering the gating system. This not only resulted in a significant quality improvement, but also led to a reduction of €15.80 (~$22.75) per part in manufacturing costs, primarily from a reduction of approximately 2.5 kg in return scrap. Given an annual production of approximately 300 pieces, this comes to cost savings of around €4,700 (~$6,768).
Thanks to solidification simulation, it was possible to reduce the number of risers from 5 to 2 together with a 69 kg reduction in return scrap during production of a gear wheel, which lowered manufacturing costs per piece by €31 (~$44.65).
Simulation pioneer as technological partner
As its technology partner for simulation, Heidelberg Foundry relies on a pioneer in this methodology in MAGMA Gießereitechnologie GmbH, Aachen. In the late 1980s, MAGMA transformed casting simulation from university research to practical application. Ever since, the resulting software solution, MAGMASOFT®,® has set technical standards when it comes to simulating casting processes. It simulates mold filling, solidification and cooling during the casting process as well as mechanical properties, residual stresses and distortion of the castings created.
MAGMASOFT® consists of a basis package and a series of additional modules which cover all casting process production steps. They support the user starting from the design of the component, the selection of the melt treatment and casting layout, through pattern design and mold production to final heat treatment and finishing. The MAGMASOFT® application spectrum covers all cast materials, such as gray and ductile cast iron as used at the Heidelberg Foundry as well as aluminum and steel. Every casting process can be simulated with the software in order to design and assess the casting and tooling layouts, cycle times and casting quality.
Simulation software selection criteria
“User-friendly operation, short preparation time until start of calculations, realistic representation of results – those were the leading functional criteria when we chose MAGMASOFT®,” explains Hans Frieß, Director of Planning/Material Management. “And of course, another factor was the potential for future developments in the software.” But it was not just the software’s functionality and quality that were relevant to the decision. MAGMA itself as simulation pioneer was a factor. Hans Frieß puts it like this: “MAGMA established casting process simulation technology as a practical tool. The industry owes its trust in simulation primarily to MAGMA. The associated market and technological leadership and references were also persuasive when we were thinking about introducing a solution.”
Amortization in one year
In the meantime, cooperation in Amstetten with MAGMASOFT® and MAGMA has a track record of about eight years. The investment was amortized within just one year instead of two, as calculated prior to acquisition. The use of the simulation solution has resulted in faster component development, higher component quality and more economic production. The technology has also assisted the foundry in terms of innovation: using MAGMASOFT made it possible to begin manufacturing larger, heavier types of components.
Simulation marketing
The software also plays an important role in marketing and sales. When potential customers inquire about a particular casting, they are not only provided with a price, but also a pledge of reliable component quality and delivery times, based on simulation results. “Thanks to our use of MAGMASOFT®, we have actually acquired customers. When we made the investment decision this effect was one we had neither expected nor taken into account,” Hans Frieß is pleased to note. MAGMA now occupies a correspondingly prominent place in marketing as well: there are numerous casting simulation visualizations on the foundry’s website, shown as recognizable screenshots from the MAGMA software.
Simulation communication
And something else has undergone further development on the basis of the simulation software: communication with the casting designers and the foundry floor. The designers quickly get reliable feedback on whether a new component design is “castable”, while production gets reliable information on how to handle the casting process to achieve the best result. Conversely, based on the documented simulation results, both parties with their expertise can prepare creative solutions, which in turn can then be quickly and easily checked using simulation.
Simulation in the future – knowledge management and service orientation
“Using casting process simulation has now become indispensable for foundries,” Hans Frieß sums up. This was the only way for them to become service providers, taking on design and consultative activities and cooperating more closely with the companies using castings. Moreover, the software protects against know-how loss, since the knowledge is no longer just in the head of an expert but instead stored in a way that can be reused in MAGMASOFT®‘s databases. Consequently, the partnership between foundry and software will intensify further in the time to come – and continue on the basis of a new software generation, which will be launched shortly.
Picture material:
Solidification simulation of a MAGMASOFT®-optimized casting for a Heidelberg printing press (here: gear wheel). Riser optimization produced savings of almost € 40,000 (~$57,600) on this single part.
About software for casting process simulation
Casting process simulation software considers the complete casting process including mold filling, solidification and cooling, and also provides the quantitative prediction of mechanical properties, thermally induced casting stresses and the distortion of cast components. Simulation accurately describes a cast component’s quality upfront before production starts, thus the casting layout can be designed with respect to the required component properties. This results in a reduction in pre-production sampling, but also the precise layout of the complete casting system leads to energy, material and tooling savings for the foundry.
The range of application of MAGMA solutions comprises all cast alloys, from cast iron to aluminum sand casting, permanent mold and die casting up to large steel castings. The software supports the user in component design, the determination of melting practice and casting methodology through to mold making, heat treatment and finishing. This saves costs consequently along the entire casting manufacturing line.
During the last 10 years, the use of casting process simulation has become a valuable business asset for many foundries. MAGMA5 now expands the capabilities of casting process simulation and will further accelerate the acceptance of this technology.
About MAGMA
MAGMA offers comprehensive solutions to the metal casting industry, casting buyers and casting designers worldwide. The MAGMA product and service portfolio includes the powerful modular simulation software MAGMASOFT®,with the newest release MAGMA5, as well as engineering services for casting design and optimization.
Today, MAGMASOFT® is used throughout the metal casting industry, especially for the optimization of cast components in automotive and heavy industry applications.
MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Aachen, Germany. A global presence and support are guaranteed by offices and subsidiaries in the USA, Singapore, Brazil, Korea, Turkey, India and China. Additionally, more than 30 qualified partners represent MAGMA around the world.
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For more information on this release, please contact:
Christof Heisser
President
MAGMA Foundry Technologies, Inc.
10 N. Martingale Road, Suite 425
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Phone 847-969-1001 ext. 225
Email cheisser@magmasoft.com
Agency contact:
Tim Daro
Bernard & Company
847-934-4500
Continue readingFOREST CITY GEAR EXPANDS BLANKING DEPARTMENT
Leading gear manufacturer acquires three new Haas turning centers to produce “donuts” for its gearmaking operations
Forest City Gear’s blanking department now boasts a Haas ST-10 and two ST-20 Turning Centers. These machines were acquired recently to improve the throughput at Forest City Gear, a world leader in fine- and medium-pitch gear and spline work. The machines are used primarily for production of “donuts”, the near net blanks used in the company’s gearmaking operations.
Roscoe, IL-Forest City Gear has acquired three Haas turning centers to improve the throughput at its gearmaking facility. The company has made this investment, according to President Wendy Young, “…because we needed to better control our throughput and reduce the time to start up jobs. We were experiencing some severe delays from outside vendors and we saw problems on the horizon from such bottlenecks. Our company is always on the lookout for such conditions, because both our quality and our delivery protocols are vital to our success with current and potential customers in the world market.” These new machines will be used in the company’s Blanking Department, headed by Tommy Kalt, who detailed the new machines.
“We purchased a Haas ST-10 Turning Center with a magazine bar feeder, 300 PSI high-pressure coolant system and automatic tool presetter. It’s a fast, very flexible and very easy-to-use machine tool.” This machine, as well as two Haas ST-20 Turning Centers with 8” chuck and 20-station hybrid turret, fully programmable tailstock and high-pressure coolant pump, are currently operating in the Forest City Gear facility to produce “donuts” from automatically fed bar stock. These donuts are the near net shape blanks used in the gearmaking operation here. As a custom producer of extremely tight tolerance gears for the most demanding applications, according to company CEO Fred Young, “We need to have optimum control of our operation, at every step. Our company today exports gears to every corner of the world and our rigorous quality standards require a number of intermediate steps, prior to shipment. If the blanks are not available and our production is delayed, the entire operation slows and we simply will not allow that to happen,” Young stated emphatically.
Kalt expands on the ST-10. “It has a manual, programmable tailstock for shaft work, another real advantage in our type of shop, where we do a lot of splines in addition to gears. Plus, the Haas CNC system is very easy to learn and to use. It has simple language commands and most operations can be done with the push of a button. I like to say it has an American-made feel to it. The work area is open, the tooling is easy to change and the learning curve was really short for our guys. They were up and making good parts almost immediately.” He noted that the performance of the first machine led quickly to the purchase of the two additional Haas ST-20 turning machines. Kalt also cited the ECO CNC system on the Haas machines, with minimal lubrication requirements and auto-power down features were in sync with the Forest City Gear green initiative programs, as a further value to this purchase.
On the business side, Wendy Young was very satisfied with the cooperation of the Haas sales and delivery team. “We were treated fairly and the support has been first-rate, right from the start. We already see the benefits of this purchase to our company.”
For more information on this story, please contact: FOREST CITY GEAR CO., INC. 11715 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073-0080 Phone: 815-623-2168 Fax: 815-623-6620 Web: www.forestcitygear.com
Email: wyoung@forestcitygear.com Attention: Wendy Young, President
PR agency contact for Forest City Gear: Tim Daro Bernard & Company 847-934-4500 tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Continue readingTim Daro
Continue readingNo. 900 is a gas-heated 350°F(~176.67°C) floor level cabinet oven from Grieve, currently used for drying polycarbonate plastics. 100,000 BTU/HR is installed in a modulating natural gas burner and workspace dimensions are 36” wide x 36” deep x 60” high.
The oven has 4” insulated walls and a 750 CFM, 3/4-HP recirculating blower provides vertical airflow to the oven. Safety equipment, such as a 325 CFM, 1/3-HP powered force exhauster, is included as required by IRI, FM and the National Fire Protection Association Standard 86 for gas-heated equipment. The oven also features shelf supports on 3” vertical centers that are rated 200 lb. per level for a 1000 lb. maximum oven load.
Controls onboard No. 900 include a recirculating blower airflow safety switch, digital indicating temperature controller and a manual reset excess temperature controller with separate contactors.
For more information, please contact: THE GRIEVE CORPORATION, 500 Hart
Road, Round Lake, Illinois 60073-2835 USA. Phone: (847) 546-8225. Fax: (847) 546-
9210. Web: www.grievecorp.com. Email: sales@grievecorp.com. Attention: Frank Calabrese.
Agency Info: Tim Daro 847-934-4500
Continue readingHennig, Inc., Machesney Park, Ill., announces the opening of an additional facility on its 11-acre campus here, to accommodate the expanding power gen business of Hennig Enclosure Systems. This new facility is now open and houses all design, engineering, sales, marketing and manufacturing capabilities for this division of Hennig, a world leader in machine protection. Utilizing additional land area outside the new facility, Hennig will also be able to test all enclosure and fuel tank systems under full operating conditions for its customers. Load bank testing, resistance testing, airflow performance and sound level checks can all be performed in an actual outdoor environment.
In announcing this new facility, Robin Moore, Vice President of Engineering and Operations for the company, commented, “Our power gen business is ramping up substantially and we required expanded capabilities, additional staff and more capacity.” He also noted the larger work bays and four overhead cranes (two tandem 7.5 ton and two tandem 20 ton with max. 80,000-lb. lift) will complement the tank welding process, electrical assembly, enclosure assembly and a new in-house finishing department for wet paint and powder coating at this Hennig facility. The new location is conveniently located off Interstate I-90 at the recently completed Route 173 interchange for easy on/off logistics, a decided advantage in transporting the huge structures produced here.
At this new location, Hennig Enclosure Systems will produce turnkey enclosures and fuel tanks for OEM power generator customers, as well as architects, design/build firms, contractors and consulting/engineering companies who constitute its current customer base. Customers interact with the company by utilizing the network of Hennig field sales engineers and service centers, as well as the recently developed online configurator software at the company’s website.
Greg Champion, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, further noted, “Our customers will quickly benefit from the improvement in work flow and logistics provided by this new facility. Being immediately adjacent to the Hennig Global Headquarters will have many upsides for our customers and us alike.” Champion further noted Hennig now has 150 employees onsite at this combined facility, for a total of 450 worldwide.
Local Rockford, IL contractor Cord Construction completed this new facility in less than six months from the date the previous facility was acquired by Hennig in November, 2010.
Hennig Enclosure Systems will further offer a limited amount of indoor generator storage for customers at the new facility to provide additional benefit.
In addition to its work in the power generator market, Hennig, Inc. designs and produces custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Manufacturing facilities are located in the U.S., Germany, France, Brazil, India, Japan, China and South Korea. Repair centers are located in Machesney Park, IL; Chandler, OK; Livonia, MI; Blue Ash, OH; Mexico City, Mexico; and Saltillo, Mexico.
To learn more about Hennig Enclosure Systems, visit www.hennig-enclosure-systems.com or contact:
Tim Waterman
Hennig Inc.
9900 N. Alpine Rd.
Machesney Park, IL 61115
(815) 316-5277
info@hennig.ame.com
www.hennigworldwide.com
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Hennig, Inc. designs and produces custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Manufacturing facilities located in the USA, Germany, France, Brazil, India, Japan, Czech Republic, England and South Korea. Repair centers are located in Machesney Park, IL; Chandler, OK; Livonia, MI; Blue Ash, OH; Mexico City, Mexico; and Saltillo, Mexico.
Continue reading
CHICAGO-On March 22, 2011, a group from the Manufacturing Summit led by Bob Vavra from Plant Engineering magazine, visited Dudek & Bock, a longtime world leader in springs, wireforms and light metal stampings for the automotive, appliance, housewares and other major high-volume, close tolerance markets. The purpose of the visit was to see how a seemingly traditional metalforming company, operating in the city of Chicago, sustains its leadership role in the world market, after 65 years in business. The attendees included representatives from various manufacturing and industrial service companies, all seeking to learn ways to improve their own operations.
The tour began with a presentation by Matt Puz, the Dudek & Bock vp for sales & marketing, supported by Mike Dudek and Raquel Chole, who head up the sales operations for the company, which operates plants in Chicago and Saltillo, Mexico.
The presentation recapped the history of the company, from its humble beginnings in 1946, when Mike Dudek’s grandfather Joe and his partner Stan Bock started the business with two four-slide machines for springforming and a commitment to vertically integrated manufacturing, product quality and efficient operation of the factory that was and is the envy of the industry. Dudek & Bock today maintains over 500 machines for use at both plants, retrofitting and rebuilding them in their Chicago factory, plus the company produces over 90% of its own tooling to minimize reliance on outside sources and the attendant cost/delivery issues. Currently, the company produces over 1500 products to order.
Puz also detailed the precision with which the operations of both plants are monitored, both in terms of employee productivity and machine utilization. Karen Pacana, one of the company’s account managers, addressed the scheduling of raw material purchases and shipping strategies, while Ken Kveton, part of the business development team for the company, spoke on the constant oversight exercised at Dudek & Bock to insure lower PPM and to streamline business integration between the two plants. Dudek & Bock recently purchased another supplier to the automotive industry and melded the operation into its Chicago plant. That company concentrated on the automotive seating industry, where Dudek & Bock was already established. As Mike Dudek observed, “We saw an opportunity to expand our product reach in the seating business, not only with the in-house capabilities we already had but also through this compatible company, who was making torsion springs and related products. The acquisition went smoothly and we are quite pleased with the results to date.”
Collectively, the automotive and appliance business represent 80% of the gross revenue at Dudek & Bock, as Matt Puz noted in his presentation. Selling to these high-volume, critical dimension industries is very challenging, as Puz further observed. “For several years recently, we invested over $1,000,000 annually in new CNC equipment to better serve our customers, through increased automation and capacity utilization at both our plants.” Karen Pacana added, “While some products are produced in the Mexico plant for local automotive business, most of it happens here in Chicago, affording us optimum control of the manufacturing and logistics. This reduces carrying costs and allows us to build a safety overrun into our jobs, which frequently gets used for aftermarket repair operations.”
Complementing the core competencies of spring, wireform and light metal stamping production at Dudek & Bock, the company also maximizes its value to customers by providing a number of secondary operations on products, including all the following: welding, riveting, inline tapping and extrusion plus drilling, swedging, grinding, tapping, deburring, stress relief, shot peening, degreasing, some coating and oven curing, plus specialized packaging to suit customer requirements.
Raquel Chole noted that the employees from the Mexico plant, nearly all young and all well educated, are frequently brought to Chicago for machine cross-training and instruction on the protocols used by the company for production evaluation. “This policy gives the employees a great sense of belonging to our organization and company culture, plus they come away from the experience here with multiple skill sets that can be utilized at the Saltillo facility.”
Eipe Varghese, the vice president for quality at Dudek & Bock, proudly discussed how the company has achieved ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO/TS 16949 certification. “Our full audit procedures and constant attention to continuous improvement protocols at both plants have made a big difference in the overall efficiency of the company. This reduces cost, improves delivery achievements and keeps us a valued supplier to our demanding major markets.”
Puz concluded the presentation with a detailed discussion on the “cost of quality” at Dudek & Bock. “We utilize world-class metrics to keep us a world-class company,” he said with no small amount of pride. “Quality has become part of our culture here and we review everything related to our machines, labor, overtime, earned hour ratio and more.” The result has been an outstanding 25% higher efficiency for man hours worked, over the last eight years, Puz noted.
Dudek & Bock is committed to a “design for manufacturability” strategy and utilizes an Advanced Production Quality Planning (APQP) process to make optimum use of the machinery and secondary operations in-house to produce products to specification and in the most efficient manner possible, Puz concluded.
Following the presentation, the group was led on a full tour of the Chicago plant, where Mike Dudek explained the Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE) concept that drives a key component of the company’s continuous improvement policy. “We frequently take a product that’s been made a certain way and, by using our production equipment and secondary operation skills, we are able to remove weight and improve the manufacturability of the product, without compromising the performance or quality in any way.” He further noted that, as a supplier to automotive, safety factors in the end product are constantly monitored. “We sample all our products throughout the run, including on every new spool of wire or coil of metal. This is a further back-up to what our quality department does on all incoming shipments.”
Monitoring the total production and all incoming jobs is done at biweekly staff meetings, observed Raquel Chole. Here, company managers review the performance issues of all machinery at both plants, plus perform an assessment on the incoming workflow. Energy use, IT issues, capacity utilization, “stretch opportunities” within an existing customer or market and manufactured product potential are all evaluated in an ongoing manner, through this process.
Eipe Varghese conducted the tour of his quality department, detailing how PPAP and segment checks are performed on all jobs at Dudek & Bock, sometimes in compliance with customer mandate, but more often to the stringent internal protocols established long ago by the company itself. “We perform load testing, full data capture and record keeping on all the work cells in the plant.” He noted the Mexico facility has a mirror image quality lab. “Gaging is often built in-house but we use external calibration services, as well, to be sure we’re on track at all times.”
In touring the machine maintenance department, Mike Dudek mused, “This is our old-fashioned art department, our black magic, if you will.” The department is staffed with many longtime Dudek & Bock employees, who have not only run every piece of machinery in the building, but are able to repair and retrofit it, as well. On a typical piece of heavy wireforming machinery, Dudek noted, “…you might be looking at $300,000 to buy it new, while our guys can make one of our old machines run as good as new for maybe 20% of that amount. Big difference.”
All in the group agreed this forward-thinking company was a fitting end to the Manufacturing Summit.
For video of this event, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=64D854D474995127
Agency contact: Tim Daro Bernard & Company 847-934-4500
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