One day, the engineer heard from a tool manufacture sales rep who was visiting the company about a honing machine that could be used to perform bore finishing instead of a single-pass machine. The rep also said that Nissin Manufacturing offered a range of highly precise honing machines that were ideal for precision machining. The engineer decided to make inquiries and learn more.
Hearing about the manufacturer’s problems, the salesperson immediately suggested a Nissin double-spindle machine with sizing device.
“The proposed machine was packed with features that would solve our problems. It was a double-spindle machine with sizing device that did not require manual adjustment, so all you had to do for consistently precise results was set the work in place and press start,” explains the engineer.
However, the engineer and others in the production engineering team were still unsure that the Nissin machine would be able to match the precision of their existing tools, and decided to subject the Nissin machine to testing to assess its capabilities. The tests involved the same honing stones and precision adjustments as those used in actual production, and the assessment of the time taken for the machine to determine machining conditions and the consistency of the machine’s performance. The machine performed well, and the manufacturer decided to install a single machine initially on a trial basis, so that it could conduct a more detailed evaluation of productivity improvements. The manufacturer found that the machine slashed processing time to just 30 seconds per workpiece, thereby bringing about a six-fold increase in productivity.
“The machine made it possible to entrust the task to non-skilled operators, which gave us much more flexibility in allocating staff. Even when the machine developed a fault, a Nissin service person arrived straight away, which was reassuring. Nissin also provided support on all aspects of the machining of a new model that we were preparing to launch, from the selection of tools to the determination of machining conditions,” says the engineer.
The trial was a success. Consequently the manufacturer decided to install several more machines. This had the effect of completely eliminating the bottlenecks in the production process as well as significantly boosting the manufacturer’s performance against production plan.
