Page 18 - MetalForming December 2014

What Good is a
What Good is a
Good Stamping
Good Stamping
Two Amada ASLUL automatic load-unload systems (far right) deliver blanks to and receive nested, cut material from a 4-kW fiber-laser cutting machine at Advanta Industries. Move 130 ft. to the left (just out of frame) and you’ll find a single ASLUL system that automates material flow to and from an Amada CO2 laser-cutting machine.
... if it arrives at the customer dinged and damaged? Making sure that doesn’t happen falls on the shoulders of Advanta Industries, a manufacturer of returnable racks and dunnage. Recently, the fabricator and weld-shop extraordinaire added some weapons to its arsenal: laser-cutting machines.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
16 MetalForming/December 2014
www.metalformingmagazine.com
Usually I’m writing about stamped and the suppliers figure out how they’re
and fabricated parts and assem-
blies, and the technology that makes it easier for metalformers to optimize quality and productivity. With this fabrication-shop visit, rather than learning how companies can make bet- ter parts, I’m learning how they can protect those valuable parts in transit. More specifically, how the part racks and shipping containers are manufac- tured to protect their valuable cargo, such as stamped and fabricated metal parts and assemblies.
As explained by Michael Grams, CFO of returnable-rack and dunnage manufacturer Advanta Industries, “the time crunch that affects nearly every automotive program hits us harder than any other supplier in the chain. As projects face delay after delay, by the time designs are finalized, for new automotive stampings for example, we might have just a few weeks to design and fabricate the returnable racks used to transport them. We’re the last step in the process, and we can’t work on the racks until the part designs are finalized
going to ship the parts.”
And that’s just one challenge Advan-
ta, based in Petersburg, MI, and with two new plants recently opened in South Carolina, faces. Another noted by Grams: Racks and other dunnage prod- ucts have evolved, due to specific mar- ket forces, into precisely engineered and fabricated products. Those market forces include the trend toward auto- mated (robotic) part handling, and the escalating surface-finish requirements of automotive parts.
“Robotic unloading means we have to be more precise than ever with part location and orientation within the racks,” explains production manager Rusty Obermyer. “Our manufacturing tolerances have really been squeezed in the last few years. We’re frequently tasked with cutting parts and providing welded assemblies with plus or minus 0.005-in. dimensional tolerances.”
Better Fixtures Beget Better Racks
Precision to Obermyer and Grams means laser cutting of the sheet and