Brad Kuvin
Editorial Director

Productivity-Improving Obstacles Fall Like Dominos

...thanks to new press controls installed on 10 coil-fed progressive-die presses. Production efficiency: Up 30 percent. Die crashes: Slashed by 75 percent. Die-repair costs: Down 60 percent.

The domino affect through the various production operations at Clairon Metals Corp.—begun in 2006 with the acquisition of new press-automation controls—has been significant and impressive. The results, some outlined above, speak for themselves.

“Our new controls (Automator II units from Cieco Inc., Clinton, PA) have done their job for us, and more,” says Clairon tooling manager John Butler, “and we’ve seen a domino affect throughout the plant. We continue to raise our performance standards, and adoption of new press controls is what allows that to happen.”

Clairon Metals operates a 114,000-sq.-ft. shop in Covington, GA, with 27 presses from 35 to 1100 tons. “We’re on the upturn now, finally,” says Butler, “happy to have been able to hire back several employees as our business has recovered from a tough 2009. We’re seeing a lot of takeover work from stampers less fortunate.

Clairon, which supplies stampings and value-added assemblies to the automotive, ATV, HVAC, and metal-furniture industries, has evolved into a short-run high-mix operation to minimize inventory buildup and meet customer just-in-time supply demands. It runs primarily coil stock of cold- and hot-rolled mild and high-strength low-alloy steels, as well as plenty of 300- and 400-series stainless used for ATV exhaust components and other parts.

Quick Changovers Get the Ball Rolling

Making dozens of daily die changes can strangle a shop’s throughput unless efficiency is optimized, and back in 2006 the plant’s pressroom struggled to attain a production efficiency above 50 percent. Changeovers took as long as 8 hr. as press operators waited

A Clairon Metals press operator tends to one of 10 new press controls installed among the firm’s coil-fed progressive-die presses. The new controls not only manage the firm’s aggressive die-protection program, but also direct all of the action in and around each press cell, including pulse-spraying of lubricant, operation of pick-and-place part-handling automation devices, pulsed air ejection to move parts off of dies, and shaker-conveyor action.

for quality checks on first-parts off.

“We changed the procedure and now allow operators to begin to run parts as soon as dies are changed and a line’s ready to run,” says Butler, adding that the firm’s typical die change now takes just 20-30 min.. “Operators visually inspect and approve the first parts off of a new setup, and we run parts in containment until quality can come out to the floor and check the parts.”

“We machined a slot down the center of each bolster and keyed the dies to locate them in the slot,” says Butler, who was the plant’s die-maintenance manager back in 2006-2007. “We also purchased new quarter-turn quick-acting clamps.”