Page 47 - MetalForming-Jun-2018-issue

to 5000 units per month, the customer can move from fabrication to hard tool- ing with a one-stop shop.
Dentholz provides a recent example involving a customer spending $18 for a power-supply chassis with a $4 cover. As volume requirements increased, DureX suggested a move to hard tool- ing. This reduced the overall unit cost from $22 to $14.
“The customer saves $8 a unit, and now production has surpassed 3000 units per month,” explains Denholtz. “The tooling cost is $80,000, so at $24,000 in savings each month, it took only 31⁄2 months to get the money back.”
In other cases, says Denholtz, the shop may use a hybrid approach. “We may fabricate a part on our turret press or use laser cutting, and then use a hard tool to form it into a box,” he says. “Tools also can be staged to create a blank, before a secondary press forms it into a box with another hard tool.” And if determined to be cost justifiable, “a full-blown progressive die can be purchased that will form the entire box completely with very little labor,” Den- holtz adds.
Air Conditioning Parts
Michael Milazzo, CEO of Simon- Aire, considers working with a metal- parts supplier such as DureX, which initiates suggestions, highly unusual.
“I’ve worked with many sheetmetal fabricators over the years and they often are silent (when it comes to mak- ing suggestions),” says Milazzo. “They just keep moving forward without stop- ping to say, ‘listen, if you do this, you can save yourself 12 passes,’ or ‘the weight of the sheetmetal is too heavy, but if you use a lower gauge, you can reduce your costs.’“
Simon-Aire Inc. manufactures pack- aged terminal air conditioners, self- contained HVAC systems commonly found in hotels, senior housing facili- ties, hospitals, dormitories and apart- ment buildings. The company also sup- plies parts and accessories, including replacement chassis, hydronic heat assemblies, louvers, wall sleeves, room
enclosures and control components. For these products, Simon-Aire requires a variety of metal parts and compo- nents from DureX.
“I’ll get a phone call from DureX saying ‘have you thought about this?’” says Milazzo. “That’s a good phone call to get. I’m not billed for that, and it doesn’t make DureX more money. It’s just part of the relationship.”
Milazzo adds that his company ben-
efits greatly from working with a parts manufacturer with experience across the metalworking spectrum. “I get to pick DureX’s brains on every little ‘what if’ that I’ve been considering,” he says. “The company can pull from their experience with a customer that makes rifle components, and one that makes a hot dog cooker, and another that makes a sign for a donut chain, to arrive at a technology that I can use in my
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