IndustrialHeating.com ■ MAY 2015 47years of experience in concepts, processes, design, sales, quoting, power supplies
and maintenance of induction heating equipment can help users and buyers.
Their expense can be incurred only when needed, and they can free your
employees to handle the need of your specific business.
Any costs associated with this help will be more than recovered by helping
you secure the best value for the least cost, more versatility, better quality, fewer
delays and misunderstandings, and more complete after-sale services.
Ball-Stud Hardening Options
Of the many automotive ball-stud hardening options, how do you decide
which is best for your requirements?
Many manufacturers use induction heating to harden automotive ball studs.
Over the years, I have seen and sold many different types of induction heating
machines for hardening ball studs. If you were to receive a number of proposals
for this application, they may include the following choices:- Manual load/unload, lift and rotate (or scanner) machines
- Multi-station lift and rotate machines with robot load/unload
- Single- or multi-station lift and rotate machines with horizontal indexing
coil (some hardening patterns cannot be accomplished by lifting vertically
into a heating coil) with or without robot load/unload (lifting may or may
not be used) - Manual or automated load/unload indexing-table machine with horizontal
indexing coil and an added temper station (no lifting is needed with this
approach) - Manual or automated load/unload indexing-table machine with a
channel-type coil and part rotation - Other possibilities
All of these options have been used for this requirement, and all have very
different considerations. Once you have decided which of the offers is suited
for your needs, you need to evaluate the pros and cons of each offering. You can
still compare the different areas of each machine since these are not necessarily
similar. An example would be the ability to monitor the heating of each part.
The different approaches can be heating one part at a time, two parts at a time
in series or multiple parts at a time in the case of a channel-type coil. All of
these can be perfectly suited to the requirement, but an experienced induction
professional can help evaluate the things that separate the different approaches.
I recently helped a client with a different automotive transmission part, and
we received three quotes from major U.S. induction companies. One offered a
multi-station scanner with robot load/unload. One offered two scanners with
a single robot to load and unload. The third offered an automated load/unload
indexing-table machine. There were many other differences and prices varied
widely. All were suitable for the production requirements.
The user had unique considerations beyond the details of each offer. The
comparison was involved, and many issues were uncovered. The user finally
decided to purchase the system that provided the best value, but it was not the
lowest price.AUTOMOTIVE FOCUS
For more information: Contact Frank Wilson,
Induction Heating Consultations, 1840 Roslyn Rd.,
Grosse Pointe Woods, MI 48236; tel: 313-432-
1602; e-mail: [email protected]. We can
provide a consultant with specialized capability
in metallurgy (induction requirements), machine
concepts and proposals, sales, project management,
power-supply design and technical service.