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Summary
What is the context and application of the customer?
Our client is a tier 1 international equipment manufacturer. In 2017, he undertook a project to develop braking assistance for electric vehicles. He had many challenges to overcome such as cleanliness, embedded electronics as well as the creation of a gearbox coupled to an electric motor.
To fix a bearing and gear pair on a special screw with head, our customer consulted us as an expert. LGC having already participated in the development of several innovation projects, our client challenged us.
What was the customer's fastening project before coming to see us?
Initially, the customer came to us for the designing an M8 screw with a head with a body of diameter 12 that must receive a bearing requiring a precision of XX microns as well as a surface of hardness XX, a cylindricity of XX and a roughness of XX.
In the monoblock version, we could start with a 22” diameter piece and then, by turning, make a rough outline of the 12” diameter raceway before induction treatment. In the final operation we carried out a diving correction.
The cost price of a component produced by multiple processes made it a very complex and inefficient part.
What study did we conduct?
The solution by fluted pin was requested by the customer. No other solution was proposed because there was a better proposal.
For this piece, we were convinced of the inefficiency of the existing process and we imagined a completely new one! The work focused on an assembly rather than a decolleting with fewer material removals, more automation and a drastic reduction in costs.
What recommendation did we make?
We offered our customer a bi-body version composed of a head shaft and a strut which is fastened onto the shaft by automated assembly.
- The axis with an M8 head made in cold heading on which we have just made a Fluting of precision. Cold forming has the advantage of supporting extremely competitive rates.
- The sleeved spacer, which after batch heat treatment will be ground to obtain precision on the diameter as well as the roughness.
- An automated assembly of the spacer on the spline of the M8 axis making it possible to maintain the required precision (cylindricity of XX microns, roughness xxx) for the bearing thanks to the control of splining in large series. During assembly, control operations are carried out: presence and position of the spacer, minimum and maximum holding force of the spacer on the splined shaft
- Packaging is carried out by a robot, this assembly island is driven by an operator
What are the quantifiable benefits for our customer?
The measured benefit is primarily on the cost of the part, with a cost improvement of 40% at peak production.
The carbon footprint is reduced by more than 50% because no screw-cutting operation is carried out, which leads to a considerable reduction in the energy used to produce and in the material sacrificed.
Reduced investments have accompanied the development of the project since 2017 because we have relied on techniques mastered internally with fluting, which is our specialty, the manufacture of a semi-standard production spacer and an M8 axis obtained by cold forming on a standard machine in 5 stations.
