Nov 15 2012
Metal Fabrication Case Study for an Automotive Aftermarket Customer
Metal Fabrication Case Study
Customer: Automotive Aftermarket
Product: Metal Bracket
Type of Fabrication: Laser Cutting, Press Brake Metal Forming, Powder Coating, Packaging & Shipping
Problem: Needed a heavy duty bracket with a lance and formed area which would include a square hole for a carriage bolt
Noble Industries solution:
One of our automotive aftermarket customers came to us with a need for a bracket with a lance and form section to allow a carriage bolt to be used with the part. A lance and form tooling can be purchased for a punch press or for a brake press. For our application we created tooling for an Amada press brake form operation. This part also has an offset and 90 degree bends around the lance and formed area and the part number stamped into the part.
HRPO .179 X 48” X 96” material is requested.
Laser Cutting: This metal fabrication job starts by laser cutting the perimeter and cutting the holes. We can laser cut 44 parts an hour with a 15 minute set up. First article inspection is performed on our Virtek 2D scanner.
Press Brake Metal Forming: Once the parts are laser cut, the job folder and parts are sent to the Press Brake area. An Amada press brake is set up to perform the lance and form operation. The set up time is estimated at 45 minutes. Once set up, we should be able to form 250 parts an hour. After lance and form operation is completed, a press brake is set up for the offset operation. Again the set up time is estimated at 45 minutes and run rate of 250 parts an hour. After all parts have the offset bend, a press brake is set up to form the three 90 degree bends and to stamp the part number in the metal bracket. Set up time is 45 minutes and we will perform 120 parts an hour.
Inspection: Noble Industries is ISO 9001 certified and all parts must go through final inspection before they are sent to be powder coated. Our quality inspector has the drawing and a list of inspection tasks to perform before the parts are sent on. Once a full quality inspection is completed and paperwork is filled out, the parts are ready to be powder coated
Powder Coating: Parts are sent to the powder coating staging area. This automotive aftermarket customer will typically have 20 to 30 other parts ordered for the week. The powder coating department will wait until all parts are in the staging area and will powder coat them all in one long run. This particular part is powder coated with PPG Black Epoxy. It is estimated that they can powder coat 1800 parts an hour.
Packaging: Once the parts are powder coated and coming out of the oven on our continuously moving powder coating conveyor, employees are waiting to package the parts per the customer’s instructions.
Shipping: The shipping area fills out final paperwork. This job is an ongoing job so they know that 1 part weighs 2.14 pounds. This run is for 250 parts. Over the 15 years history of making this part, we fabricate this part once or twice a month with production runs between 100 parts to a high production run of 264 parts. Total metal parts fabricated over the 15 years is 16,036 metal brackets.
Noble Industries has been in business since 1969 making automotive aftermarket brackets for many customers who are still our partners today. If you need a metal fabrication company with a proven record of helping customers and growing partnerships, contact Brenda Snyder at 317-773-1926.
