The head production engineer, who had been gathering information, happened to hear about the Nissin vertical honing machine, which was highly rated by other factories.
“I was informed that this vertical honing machine performs one cycle automatically at the touch of a button: all you have to do is set the workpiece in the jig. There is no need to perform dimensional adjustments every time either, so the machine can be operated even by unskilled operators,” said the head production engineer.
The machine piqued the engineer’s interest, as it would enable the manufacturer to phase out manual tasks and eliminate the need to have operators station at the machine constantly, thereby boosting both work efficiency and operator’s productivity. The engineer was also informed that Nissin had a good reputation for after-sales support, and that a Nissin engineer would travel immediately to the site if a problem ever arose.
The engineer immediately made enquiries with Nissin and described his company’s issues. Some days later, Nissin proposed a solution comprising a double-spindle honing machine with fixed-amount stone expansion.
“As per the proposal, we took our workpieces to Nissin and they performed testing to evaluate accuracy. The machine’s accuracy surpassed our expectations. The machine was also very easy to configure and use. You just have to set the workpieces in the jig and press ‘start’,” says the head production engineer.
Because the machine was able to achieve the desired bore diameters and offered fixed-amount stone expansion, it eliminated the need to have an operator perform manual adjustment. The manufacturer hoped to achieve significant productivity improvements, with processing times per workpiece reduced by around 22% (or around 60% when using a double-spindle machine) due to the fact that two workpieces could be machined simultaneously.
After considering these results, the company’s engineers decided to replace their existing machines with a Nissin G25-MM2 vertical honing machine. Because Nissin also offers its own range of grinding stones, it would act as a ‘one-stop service’ for everything related to the machine. This was a good thing, because when an issue about accuracy arises, there is often a need to consult both the manufacturer of the machine and the manufacturer of the grinding stone, meanwhile suspending production: this could now be avoided. The new machine also reduced the workload associated with bore finishing and made it possible for anyone to achieve the same accuracy in the same time with consistent quality, which was a load off the head engineer’s mind. The machine also enabled the manufacturer to boost productivity.
In future, the manufacturer plans to replace machines used in other processes as well, to enable it to further increase its production while also solving the issues posed by its ageing workforce.
