A global manufacturer of movable folding room partitions used in hotels and
convention centers had contacted Kilian for a special bearing assembly that
was needed to securely hold the heavy partition panels in place. Retention
strength was critical, but equally important was the effort required to
move the partitions – these big, heavy walls had to move easily and
smoothly to satisfy ergonomic requirements.
Kilian was already supplying only the loose bearings to this customer.
However, at the time, Kilian was not aware that other parts were needed to
put the loose bearings to work in the application. The customer purchased
a separate stamping and cold headed fastener, which required separate
quality, purchasing and inventory activities to support the purchases of
these components. When all of the parts finally arrived, they assembled
the unit and attached the Kilian bearing to the stamping. Most of the
time, the customer made good parts during the assembly. Attaching
bearings to stampings, (or really anything else) can be very tricky. If
any of the many staking process parameters, (peen diameter, length, angle,
condition, dwell time, line pressure, etc.) are not controlled properly,
the spin characteristics of the bearing could be negatively affected. Or
worse...the bearing could be permanently damaged, resulting in excessive
rework cost and scrap.
When Kilian noticed that the bearing was used in a slightly larger
assembly, Kilian suggested a better idea. A unitized assembly was proposed—a "right out of the box" design solution, by Kilian that incorporated the
stamping and rivet. The new assembly saved the customer assembly time,
scrap, and all of the issues that supported buying the components. When
the customer added up all of their direct and indirect costs, they also
realized a significant cost reduction, which was the icing on the cake!
Kilian is highly skilled at attaching bearings to other components – it has
been done hundreds of millions of times! Our customer was absolutely
thrilled with the new part. They were able to insure 100% quality parts
delivered on time and supported by the best engineering team in the
business!
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