Archive for July, 2006
Part Cutters – Design for assembly dramatically reduces complexity of plasma arc cutter, Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Design News
July 20th, 2006
The engineers at Hypertherm Inc., a maker of plasma cutting systems,know a thing or two about cutting metals. They also know how to cut cost. A lot of cost. While redesigning one of the company’s best-selling plasma cutting systems, they managed to reduce parts’ count from more than 1,000 components to fewer than 500. System assembly time fell from 20 hours to less than five. And the output from the company’s existing assembly operation quadrupled — without any additional floor space or an expensive second shift. Bottom line: the redesign saved the company about $5 million in assembly costs over the past 24 months alone, according to Engineering Manager Mike Shipulski. Read the rest of this entry »
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Mike Shipulski