Cleveland, Ohio — Misumi Corp. presented a seminar Dec. 5 on using configurable components to speed design and manufacture of machines.  Attendance included 27 engineers from northern Ohio manufacturers.  This was one of a series of local seminars offered by this supplier.

Misumi’s manager of engineering Chris Blaszczyk led the discussion, pointing out that machines are normally built from a combination of stock parts from catalogs, and custom parts that have to be designed and built especially for that application.  Such custom parts are expensive and often involve delays during the design, quotation, and build process.

A third alternative, Blaszczyk suggested, involves configurable parts: standard catalog parts that can be custom configured for a given application.  Ordered from the Misumi catalog and customized for the application, they are normally delivered in 3-6 days, and without the setup charges and minimum quantities that can drive up costs of custom parts.

To show how this works, he used the example of linear shafting.  It’s available in several standard lengths from 30-1200 mm. But if you need special nonstandard lengths, you can order the same shafting in configurations from 30 to 1500 mm, in 1-mm increments.  31 mm?  No Problem.  1499 mm?  Can do, and everything in between.  And Misumi’s catalog contains thousands of such configurable components that can be ordered by part number, with instant online quotes and 3-6 day delivery.

www.misumiusa.com