| Application Stories |
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CALL
TO 911-LAN-TECH A lost order for Lantech and Gerrard Ovalstrapping turned into an opportunity to show what "value-added" really means when the two companies put together a 911-rescue of the start-up of a new consumer-goods distribution centre in Brantford, Ontario. In mid-July, 2005 three weeks after the official opening date of June 28, the centre still didn't have the stretch wrappers promised for May 2 by the low bidder on the project. "We were limping along with loaner machines that were not like what we ordered, and required too much manual intervention," said Dhon MacKinnon project manager for JNE Consulting Ltd. of Burlington, Ontario, the owner's site representative responsible for the facility's operating equipment. "After listening to excuses for seven weeks, we turned to Lantech and Gerrard Ovalstrapping. We placed an order July 18, and received the two S-300XT machines August 4. We assembled them and ran them off August 5, and went into full production on Tuesday, August 9, with guarding and fence enclosure operational." The large, new distribution centre operates 24 hours per day. The pick-to-order operation ships a wide variety of consumer staples to customers in quantities from individual cases to entire truckloads.
The DC has since ordered additional Lantech stretch wrappers, shrink wrappers, and shrink tunnels for the facility. "Lantech was one of several bidders on these machines," says MacKinnon, "but the delivery performance, excellence machine quality and some other factors from the earlier experience cemented the decision. Doing what you say you will do and meeting commitments is too rare these days, so one cannot minimize the achievement or the impression made." "We were glad to be called in 'off the bench' to save the game for these good customers, so we made some exceptions to expedite the order," said Jon Burns, sales manager for Gerrard Ovalstrapping. "The normal delivery time on machines of this type is six to eight weeks, but Lantech understood the customer's predicament and really rose to the occasion. It was not easy, but we all learned some good lessons in the process." Gerrard Ovalstrapping
SKID
STEERS Canada's Athabasca oil-sands -- one of the world's largest petroleum resource basins -- is one of the most punishing places on the planet. It's also the worksite of a fleet of five John Derre skid steers belonging to Carmacks Construction of Fort McMurray, Alberta. The oil sands are a huge, buried pile of sand with oil residue, and Carmacks' fleet of skid steers must endure a steady rain of abrasive, sandy, oily material constantly falling from the sky. The spillage material is so abrasive that in just 36 hours it completely wears down a bucket's cutting edge, according to Dave Scragg, manager, Carmacks Construction. "To be realistic, nobody should take a piece of equipment into this environment, but there's a job to do," Scragg said. "And John Deere is the only machine that can withstand this kind of punishment. They come out of there after a 12-hour shift with a six-inch coating of this tarry, sandy material." A truck-and-shovel method is used to mine the oil sands. This method allows operators to access a higher quality of oil sands with less clay. Huge shovels load the sand into the 350-ton trucks, which transport the mix to primary crushers. The oil-sand mix is transported from the crushers to the oil-extraction plant by a 600-meter-long conveyor. Concrete beams support the conveyor, which is suspended as high as 20 meters above the ground in places. The skid steers clear spillage from underneath the conveyor. The spillage piles up so rapidly that in a 12-hour shift, it starts to reach the conveyor even where 20 meters of clearance had existed. "There's barely enough room, but the Deere skid steers have the ability to get into tight spaces, with the power you need to pick up this material," Scragg said. "Deere machines have the best horsepower-to-weight ratio you can find for this job." Carmacks has used both the 200- and 300-Series Skid Steers. Recently, the energy company that contracts Carmacks rented three John Deere 328 skid steers to work underneath the conveyor. After trying other makes, the energy company now rents Deere exclusively because of their durability, reliability and performance. "Deere has the most durable machines out there," Scragg said. "We've tried every brand, but John Deere is the only one that gives us the uptime we need. Our mechanics and operators make it clear they prefer Deere, and we listen to them." Over the years, Carmacks has owned more than 40 John Deere skid steers. In addition to the advantages the machines provide, the Deere dealer network has been a real partner to the company, according to Scragg, "We need tremendous parts and service support, because we are really pushing our equipment to the extremes," he said. "Our experience with Deere dealers has been excellent -- they bend over backwards." John Deere
"NO-QUOTE" LEADS TO IMPROVED ASSEMBLY SYSTEM
The Innovated Cooling Dynamics (ICD) unit of
TESMA, located in Mississauga, Ontario, is a major producer of
automotive water pumps in North America. Among others, ICD supplies
water pumps for Ford and General Motors. "With that kind of operation," explained ICD engineering manager Kevin McConville, "you have to be able to depend on your suppliers to deliver what you need, when you need it. You also have to standardise your systems to the greatest extent possible to facilitate maintenance and optimize operating efficiency." Systems integrator Automated Systems, Inc. (ASI) of nearby Markham, Ontario, had supplied ICD with previous water pump assembly and test systems, but had to "no-quote" a new system when ICD's preferred supplier of testing components was unable to make the required deliveries for a very aggressive timeline. "Nobody wants to 'no-quote' an
established customer with the kind of growth potential ICD has,"
explained ASI sales engineering manager Naurice Joseph, "but without the
necessary test components there simply was no way to supply the system
they wanted." "Basically, we build asynchronous in-line assembly systems with a testing station after each key operation. That gives us a 100-percent testing capability, but it uses additional equipment and floor space. We had been looking at alternatives that could combine the assembly and test functions into a single station, and had even suggested one to ICD, but they did not want to change a standard that had already shown it worked." The alternative that ASI had suggested was an electro-mechanical press (EMAP) system built by Promess, Inc. that could perform the assembly operation and simultaneously provide the necessary quality control information. Switching the process from the existing method to the Promess EMAP would eliminate four separate testing stations on the ASI line, saving 20- to 25-percent in floor space, and reducing overall system cost. "ASI had talked to us about the Promess alternative," McConville explained, "but we take standardisation very seriously and couldn't see enough of an advantage to change a system design that we knew worked for us. That, of course, was before ASI told us we simply couldn't get another 'standard' system on the schedule we needed to meet to satisfy our customer. All of a sudden, the Promess alternative began to look very interesting, indeed." Based on their faith in ASI as a systems integrator, ICD changed the system specification to include the Promess EMAP press on four key stations, and eliminate the follow-on testing stations. "I'll tell you we were a bit nervous," McConville said, "so we did some head-to-head testing of our own, using a production gauge and water pumps built on an existing system and on the Promess-equipped system. The answers were more than reassuring, they were amazing. "The existing system delivered a CpK of 1.4 with a 75-micron standard deviation. The specification is a CpK of 1.67. The Promess assemblies had a CpK of 1.75 with a 40-micron standard deviation. The PP was 1.77 compared to 3.28. "Remember, that is a like-to-like comparison on the same gauge using randomly selected components assembled on both systems. Needless to say, we knew we were on to something good." The Promess EMAP uses an encoder-equipped servo motor to drive a ball-screw ram that can be equipped with a variety of sensors. EMAP is a proven technology that facilitates truly intelligent assembly operations which offer new levels of quality, productivity and flexibility. The EMAP's ability to simultaneously monitor and control both force and position enables new strategies which change quality assurance from a reactive, to a proactive concept. At the heart of this change are two technologies. The first is signature analysis, the second is closed loop external sensing. Signature Analysis: It plots the force required to assemble two components against the distance traveled to produce a unique assembly "signature". By setting upper and lower tolerance limits for this signature, production of good assemblies can be assured without the need for subsequent inspection. Closed loop external sensing: The EMAP system is designed to take in six additional external sensing commands. This allows the system to automatically compensate for deflection, part creeping, temperature influence and developing a finished tolerance from a separate referance surface. The exact shape of the signature also provides important information about the individual parts being assembled, which can be used as a control input to other processes. For example, parts that are too soft or too hard will produce a distinct change in the signature, as will parts with out-of-tolerance assembly details such as hole or shaft diameters. Signature analysis is a very well-known technology. Promess EMAP systems are widely used in the automotive industry, as well as a variety of other precision assembly applications. In the ICD assembly system, Promess EMAPs are used for four critical operations: pressing a bearing into the pump housing; pressing a drive hub onto the pump shaft; pressing a seal into the pump housing; and pressing the impeller onto the pump shaft. "An automotive pump is really a pretty simple device," McConville explained. "Essentially it's a casting that bolts to the front of the engine block. Inside the casting is an impeller that moves water through the cooling system. Outside the casting is a pulley that is driven by the 'fan belt' to spin the impeller. "Of course, on a modern automobile, nothing is that simple," he said. "Today's pumps are calibrated to the thermal characteristics of a particular engine. So, even though the Ford 'World Pumps' we build may all look the same on the outside, they are very different on the inside. "The key elements from a quality and durability standpoint are the bearing and the impeller. The bearing has to be square to the mounting face of the housing, and the impeller has to fill the space between the block face and the inside face of the pump housing very precisely. "If it doesn't, the pump loses efficiency
and the engine overheats. "Our goal here at ICD is to produce an extremely boring product, one that just keeps on doing its job and never gets noticed by our customer, or their customers. We were doing pretty well at that, and with the new Promess-equipped systems we are doing even better," concludes McConville. Promess, Inc.
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Canadian Industrial Equipment News March 2006 |
May 16, 2008
The
two Lantech S-300XT overhead stretch wrappers, each capable of wrapping
up to 40 loads per hour, are ideal for the mixed-height loads. A simple
push of a button is all the operator intervention that's needed to wrap
the load, up to the machine's capacity of 110" high. The machines attach
the film to the load and cut it after wrapping. The machines are factory
configured for 250% film pre-stretch, and actual wrap force is variable
at the machine.
Automated
Systems' assembly machine at Innovative Cooling Dynamics' plant in
Mississauga, Ontario. Assembly and test are all-inclusive. There are
four Promess EMAP presses involved
Two
of the four Promess EMAP presses in the ICD system
Close
up look at the impeller, precisely placed by the Promess EMAP
electro-mechanical press in ICD water pumps.
