Assembly Planbook - June 2008 - (Page 24)

Assembly in Action compressors for the automotive industry. Recently, the company purchased a number of Miracle Boy high-performance oil filtration systems from Meiji Corp. (Elk Grove Village, IL) in an effort to reduce its expenditures on petroleum products, as well as its environmental “carbon footprint.” Established in 1989, Michigan Automotive Compressor maintains a 786,000-square-foot production facility equipped with some 200 robots and 650 production machines. These systems do everything from machining and pressing to tin plating, arc welding and quality testing. The Miracle Boy ﬁ lters are being used in combination with the company’s die-casting machines and the main ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGIES Lower Cost Operations Decreased • Energy Usage • Product Damage • Work Hazards Right Angle Nut Runners Up to 40 N•m Michigan Automotive Compressor Inc. has been able to dramatically reduce labor and material costs by implementing a series of oil filtration systems in its production process. Dependable Performance • Consistent Repeatability • High Endurance 2-Piece Motors Up to 12 N•m vacuum pumps serving its inspection stations. Installed in 2004, the ﬁltration systems have succeeded in reducing oil usage in these areas by approximately 92 percent. Greenhouse gas emissions are down from 26.4 tons to almost zero. According to Michigan Automotive production engineer Lee Kline, the company was able to recover 85 percent of the cost of the ﬁlters within the ﬁrst year, thanks to the savings it experienced in terms of materials and labor. For more on oil ﬁltration technology, visit www.mboilﬁlters.com or call 847-364-9333. Advanced Technologies • Battery Management Systems • Variable Torque Impacts Pistol Grip Screwdrivers Robots Assemble Flashlights Faster, Better S Up to 200 N•m User Friendly • LED Lamps • Easily Serviced • Ergonomic Design Cordless Solutions for Manufacturing Makita USA, Inc. 14930 Northam St., La Mirada, CA 90638 Impact Tools (800) 4-MAKITA makitaassemblytools.com ureﬁre LLC (Fountain Valley, CA) manufactures professional-grade, high-intensity ﬂashlights used by people like hikers and police ofﬁcers. Although it has long employed both automated and semiautomated processes on its assembly lines, the company recently began replacing its hard automation equipment with articulated robots to further streamline its manufacturing operations. Among other things, company engineers wanted to reduce labor costs, while at the same time improving quality and reducing scrap rates and rework. The company also wanted to 24 ASSEMBLY / June 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://makitaassemblytools.com http://www.mboilfilters.com http://makitaassemblytools.com http://www.assemblymag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Assembly Planbook - June 2008

Assembly Planbook - June 2008 Contents Editorial Bonding Lines Quality in Assembly Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Fastening or Bonding? Loose Lips Sink Assembly Systems DFMA Cuts Downstream Costs Robots Lend a Hand Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.