High Efficiency Process Created Through Orbital Forming
Posted on 04/11/2018 | by The Orbitform Blog Team
A parts manufacture was in a bind. Their original design used a threaded fastener to retain a roller, but the hardened nuts were failing under high stress and the company was obligated to deliver over 900 parts to their customer. The company contacted Orbitform's application engineers for help.
After examining the joint requirements and operating environment, Orbitform engineers suggested replacing the threaded fastener with a permanent fastening solution, orbital forming. Application engineers designed a prototype, which was machined in Orbitform’s machine shop and assembled in Orbitform’s Assembly Solutions Lab. The company performed stress testing on the prototypes and the failure rate dropped to nearly zero.
Orbitform engineers then applied value engineering techniques to optimize the manufacturing. In addition to eliminating the threaded fastener, the new design reduced material, replaced a costly precision flat spacer with a generic washer, eliminated the need for heat treating, eliminated the process of cutting threads into the retaining stud, and eliminated the time consuming process of adjusting the end-play as the gap tolerance was maintained in the machining, creating a low profile part with higher tolerances which cost less and was faster to produce.
In three short months the Orbitform team took a product from concept to delivering over 900 finished parts. Orbitform engineers went on to design a fully automated work cell including CNC machining, robotic load, unload, inspection, assembly, orbital forming and packaging for shipment. Increase your throughput, improve quality, reduce scrap, and maximize profits. Orbitform… total solution delivered.