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Brake Cable
Manufacturing
Customer’s Problem:
A multi-national Tier 1
automotive parts manufacturer lands a new
program for manufacturing automotive
emergency brake cables. Brake cables consist
of an inner wire multi-strand with
extruded nylon covering and an outer wire
wound conduit with an interior and
exterior extruded nylon jacket. New equipment
is required to insert the strand
into the conduit, crimp fittings on each
end and a bend a metal sleeve attached
to one end a smooth 90 degrees for the part
geometry. Both right hand and left
hand parts are to be manufactured. Attachments
are crimped or swaged at each end
of the strand for cable actuation. Manufacturing
error proofing and 100% in-line
testing is required with an overall cycle
time of 14 seconds or less per part.
The equipment must be capable of flexible
manufacturing for multiple products
with quick changeover.
MPT Inc.’s Solution:
MPT Inc. custom engineered
and manufactured a 2 – operator cell to accommodate
the production requirements.
At the first operator station, the strand
and conduit are assembled, ends
crimped and the tube bent. An automated overhead
walking beam system transfers
the product through assembly stations. The
assembled product is transferred to a
conveyor and presented to a second operator
for cable attachment crimping or
swaging and proof testing. Hydraulics were
applied extensively to provide power
for material forming and the transfer motions.
All tooling is placed on linear
rails with bearings for quick change to run
multiple products. Multiple PLCs are
used for each operation center and communicate
to each other for co-ordination
of the manufacturing cell. Two electronic
operator interfaces are integrated to
quickly set-up new products, indicate out-of
tolerance products and easily
diagnose any faults.
Results:
A robust, reliable, flexible
manufacturing cell that proves a Cpk capability of greater than 2.0,
and an overall cycle time of less than 12
seconds per part. Machine uptime and
efficiency results prove concepts and imbedded
diagnostics. Improved Profits!!
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