Page 36 - MetalForming December 2019

Precision Metalforming Association
honors excellence in productivity, quality, training and education.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
An annual affair, the Precision Metalforming Associa- tion’s (PMA’s) Awards of Excellence in 2019 honors organizations that have excelled in the areas of pro- ductivity, quality, training and education. Selected by a com- mittee of PMA members, these honorees have met strict criteria and demonstrated excellence in their selected cat- egories. For more on PMA’s Awards of Excellence program, visit www.pma.org/awards.
Productivity Award
Anchor Manufacturing Group Cleveland, OH
Anchor Manufacturing Group, Inc., Cleveland, OH, received the 2019 Zierick Manufacturing Corp. Productivity Award for productivity gains realized on its crash-tube line, which manufactures three steering-column crash tubes. The company specializes in high-strength aluminum assem- blies, stainless-steel exhaust products, safety-critical parts, steering-column components and assemblies, and appear- ance parts.
Improving the crash-tube line was challenging due to tight part tolerances and high throughput expectations. Also challenging: the complexity of the line, which includes a five-station forming machine, a nine-station pierce machine, two CNC machining centers, a deburring operation, parts washer, stencil unit and a restrike press.
The first major improvements occurred on the form and pierce equipment to correct mechanical issues with the
Improvement of a complex steering-column crash-tube line at Anchor Manufacturing Group netted numerous benefits, includ- ing increased customer satisfaction due to improved on-time delivery and quality, and an annual savings of more than $567,000 resulting from scrap reduction and increased efficiency.
equipment as well as quality issues with the parts. Investi- gation of a galling issue in the forming machine revealed oil sprayers being bumped out of position and not spraying on the correct location of the tube. Hard-lining the lubrication system corrected this problem. Anchor also worked with its lubrication supplier to perform analyses on the lube at dif- ferent frequencies after a tank recharge. This helped deter- mine when the system needed to be recharged and led to
34 MetalForming/December 2019
www.metalformingmagazine.com