ABCO Automation, Inc. in Greensboro, North Carolina has consistently decreased costs and increased profits by looking for new ways to source custom components used in machine builds.
To not only compete but grow in such a market requires that ABCO develop a long term and mutually beneficial relationship with its customers. To achieve this objective ABCO developed a mission to provide customers with a single source for innovative solutions, automation services and manufacturing support that are valued contributions to the customer’s success. In addition, ABCO prides itself in exceeding expectations for quality, execution and service.
ABCO began investigating other custom components they could replace with MISUMI configurable components. As ABCO increased its use of configurable components benefits from decreasing its use of custom components was having an impact on various projects.
ABCO has experienced problems in the past with custom components where no two components are the same. As a result, machine component repeatability and modularity only increases.
Recently, this was a deciding factor when choosing MISUMI as a supplier for the design and build of several high speed, high performance packaging machines.
Naturally another benefit from reducing component count comes in the form of cost savings. ABCO President Brad Kemmerer expects his engineers to meet their design and build budgets and encourages them to beat this budget on a consistent basis. All total each packaging machine contained approximately 10,000 components. Out of the approximate 10,000 components, around 3,000 were MISUMI components.
Working with the configurable component has really changed the thinking behind designing and building custom machines at ABCO Automation. Along with lower pricing, MISUMI never requires a minimum order quantity or set up charge on a product portfolio of 280,000 metric and inch components. MISUMI has a 99.97% on-time delivery rating on all its products as well as a web site that allows engineers to download native CAD files as well as place orders for its entire product offering.
The MISUMI component list for this machine included linear shafts, flanged linear bushings, strut clamps, locating pins, locating bushings, belts, bearings, plates, bolts and rollers.
“For a project of this size if we would have needed to draw and machine all the mechanical components, it could have increased the tooling costs by 5 times,” estimated Senior Mechanical Engineer, Dan Pescariu.
All total each packaging machine contained approximately 10,000 components. Out of the approximate 10,000 components, around 3,000 were MISUMI components.
“Unlike custom components, MISUMI configurable components offer native CAD files that can be downloaded from their web site as well as short lead-times, published prices and part numbers for every configured component, which can easily be added to the bill of material,” noted Senior Mechanical Engineer, Dan Pescariu.
ABCO President Brad Kemmerer expects his engineers to meet their design and build budgets and encourages them to beat this budget on a consistent basis. “We were able to come in under budget for the design and build of these packaging machines and I can honestly say this is due to using as many MISUMI components as we could on the machine,” stated Senior Mechanical Engineer, Dan Pescariu.
Filed Under: AUTOMATION, Motion control • motor controls
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