Content tagged with "efficiency"
Results: 15
Article
July 29, 2008
Intelligent business investments in uncertain economic times
When the economy falters or even shows the first signs of slowing, businesses have a tendency to retrench. In an effort to lower costs and reduce overhead, they slash budgets across various departments. But what they don't realize is that the budgets that typically are cut first are areas... Read more...
Article
April 15, 2008
So what if one saw cuts faster than another?
As the need for flexibility increases in a shop, the need for high-production-volume cutting decreases. Comparing one saw to another might reveal quite a few differences, even though the saws might be similar in many ways. One difference might be cutting speed. To many fabricators, this may... Read more...
Article
August 8, 2007
Implementing a coil-end joiner
Almost all metal stampers have downtime at the end of a steel coil. The amount of time a line is nonproductive between coils can vary. It's not uncommon for downtime to exceed 20 minutes. On heavy-gauge lines, where a coil's linear footage is low, the amount of downtime can be excessive. Pax... Read more...
Article
April 10, 2007
The costs of inefficiency
Discovering inefficiencies upfront in a robotic welding workcell such as this can prevent hidden costs later on. U.S. manufacturers can compete in the world marketplace if we simply learn a few important lessons. Chief among these lessons is efficiency and knowing the cost of change.... Read more...
Article
February 13, 2007
Cleaning up
Simpson Dura-Vent, a designer and manufacturer of gas vent and chimney products, produces stamped and drawn parts from galvanized steel, aluminum, zinc aluminum, and stainless steel with material thicknesses from 0.018 inch to 0.100 in. The stamper produces about 20 million finished goods... Read more...
Article
November 7, 2006
Moving material efficiently
Material handling from stamping operations can present unique challenges. Regardless of whether you're handling scrap or finished parts, you need to think about several points to select the right equipment for your particular application. You have many equipment choices today to move,... Read more...
Article
October 10, 2006
Transfer technology
As with profit margins, the margin for error in the metal forming industry is becoming tighter and tighter—choosing the wrong equipment or delaying new technology investments can quickly make a pressroom uncompetitive. And these days, once you get behind, it's almost impossible to... Read more...
Article
August 20, 2006
Why settle for good enough?
If their financial results are indicative of the manner in which they are run, some steel pipe and tube fabricators need to be managed better.
As part of its customary monthly survey of 427 plant managers in the Great Lakes states (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,... Read more...
Article
April 11, 2006
Keep it moving
To obtain the best performance from high-productivity equipment, parts and scrap must be moved efficiently, quickly, and reliably. Conveyor jams or slowdowns can offset machine tool productivity and damage high-production equipment. The solution may be a reliable conveyor system that... Read more...
Article
March 7, 2006
Productivity: From pipe dream to reality
The pipe fabrication industry continues to evolve because of changes in the work force, materials, welding specifications, and fabrication methods. These changes have caused companies to look for more efficient and modern ways to complete projects in less time with improved profits, while... Read more...
Article
December 13, 2005
Creating an efficient offline band sawing system
Editor's Note: This is the second article in a two-part series on offline band saw cutting. Part I, which appeared in the September issue, focused mainly on material handling and included some related information on sawing. Part II focuses solely on saws and sawing. Answering a few of... Read more...
Article
October 11, 2005
Total transfer knowledge
Figure 1 A transfer press can produce large, complex parts or support JIT manufacturing. Historically when a stamping job shop required an automated press system, its choices were limited to progressive-die operations equipped with coil feeders or transfer-die operations with... Read more...
Article
October 11, 2005
Creating an efficient offline band sawing system Part I
Editor's Note: This is the first article in a two-part series on offline band saw cutting. Part I focuses mainly on material handling and includes some related information on sawing. Part II focuses solely on saws and sawing. This first step in setting up an offline band sawing... Read more...
Article
September 14, 2004
Getting your assets in order
A new 4-kilowatt laser just hit the floor. The technician will arrive on Monday to install it. It's your responsibility to make sure the gases arrive. The preinstallation manual was faxed to your local gas supplier, and all is well. Not so fast. Other gas matters can affect cost and... Read more...
Article
September 4, 2001
Boosting efficiency in solid state welders
High-frequency induction (HFI) welding is used widely by the tube producing industry, but a large number of variables need to be controlled to perform the operation successfully. In the HFI welding process, high-frequency current is induced in the open seam tube by an induction coil... Read more...
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