Elrae Industries Inc.

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Innovations

Stamping, welding, assembly and production methods improve products and delivery to markets.

An existing Elrae customer, a major supplier of hand tools and machinery used to cut and thread pipe, had previously been purchasing a stamped part and a forged part and welding the two parts together in-house.

Elrae was asked to provide the complete assembly on a JIT basis. We produced the stamping, obtained the forging and robotically welded the assembly to the customer's satisfaction and schedule.

Meeting the first challenge - holding tolerances.

Impressed by Elrae's welding capabilities, the customer asked for assistance in solving a problem with another assembly. The work was being performed by another supplier who could not hold the required tolerances for the part.

After reviewing the problem, Elrae determined that improvements were necessary to a machined component, as well as the welding process, assembly sequence and fixturing. Upon making all the recommended changes to the process, Elrae successfully provided the assembly and held the tolerances to the customer's specifications.

One solution leads to another.

Once again impressed with Elrae's capabilities, the customer presented the next challenge involving a complete part. The original supplier had gone out of business and Elrae's customer had decided to stop offering the part. A year later, a renewed market developed for this very unique item and the customer wanted to begin offering it again.

However, there were some problems. The manufacturing process was unknown and the tooling no longer existed. All Elrae had to work with was a part print and a description of how the part was to function. Working with our engineering and tool and die personnel, Elrae developed a manufacturing process and the required tooling to successfully produce the part. The customer is now able to meet the renewed demand for this part which otherwise would not have been available.

More challenges, more solutions.

Additional challenges soon followed. The next challenge involved producing another welded assembly that combined a stamped part, two rings which were purchased, plus drilling and tapping operations.

The rings are robotically welded to a large stamping and center to center alignment of the rings is critical. Forming of the stamping is also very critical for final alignment of the assembly on its associated machine.

Elrae's Expertise goes beyond metal stamping to provide a solution.

The most recent problem faced by Elrae was actually a combination of stamping, heat treating and plating problems. The original supplier was only stamping the part and the customer was having the part heat treated and plated. Not only was the customer having trouble with the unfinished part, but their original supplier was not willing to accept responsibility for shipping the part complete, due to stringent heat treating and plating requirements.

With a broad range of experience, including a thorough knowledge of heat treating and plating, Elrae was confident that a solution could be found. A thorough investigation by Elrae revealed that:

• The original tooling as built was not capable of producing an acceptable part
• The head treatment process being used was not adequate
• The plating specification required that a preparatory operation be performed to provide a useable finished part.

Elrae is now providing all of these services and shipping several hundred thousand fully finished parts annually to a very satisfied customer.

Elrae turns problems into improvements.

Elrae's unique problem solving capabilities met the needs of this one customer and resulted in several improvements over a variety of required parts.