Quality ISSUES
Major North American Ladder Manufacturer
Problems:
- Contamination in rivets causing down time on rivet machines.
- Split rivets when rolling over a semi-tubular rivet.
Solutions:
- Slidematic purchased six new rivet machines to produce semi-tubular rivets in 3/16” and 1/4” diameters.
- SPC then setup manufacturing processes to control the concentricity and cutoff on the end of the semi-tubular rivet when manufactured on a heading machine. This, combined with the controlled waxing of the rivets helped contribute to the elimination of splitting during the rolling of the semi-tubular rivet.
- SPC also initiated and worked with the customer to develop a design of experiments for their rollsets, resulting in a maximum profile that significantly reduced rivet splitting.
- SPC developed this manufacturing process in addition to helping outside plater develop a process to eliminate the contamination of foreign parts and mixed rivet lengths in production parts. Part of this included the development of in-house material handling bins to prevent parts from being retained after subsequent processes.
Results:
- In 18 months, 350 Million semi-tubular rivets were produced in 30 different sizes. Slidematic was awarded the first and only CERTIFIED SUPPLIER status for fasteners.
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