High accuracy and precision are fundamental to meet customer requirements. Traceability and communication 4.0 are key components to ensure the quality of the assembly process. Here's a recent story that illustrates this concept.
New Challenges
In early 2020, a need to improve fastening processes came from an technology company that has been offering electronics manufacturing and product development services for more than 40 years. At that moment, focus had shifted to producing top tier quality medical devices in an effort to combat the terrible effects of the COVID pandemic. This new challenge required to expand their capabilities to meet the growing needs of the new customer with the very latest technologies and systems necessary to deliver precision, high-quality life saving products.
Time was of the essence and they required precision fastening experts to evaluate their assembly processes, make timely suggestions and provide expedited delivery. A better accuracy and precision, together with traceability and communication were part of the new fastening requirements. After a complete review and evaluation of the assembly needs, the KOLVER team was able to offer a reliable and cost effective solution with the K-DUCER, KOLVER’s transducerized intelligent assembly system.
Intelligent Solution
The K-DUCER system consists of an advanced state-of-the-art controller and a range of handheld and fixtured electric screwdrivers for manual or collaborative assembly process. In addition to high accuracy and precision, the K-DUCER offers ergonomics and comfort that allow an easy and safe operation. One of the costumer most important requirements was traceability, added value that is offered to their clients, requirement also met with the K-DUCER system. The controller recollects operation data and brings real time feedback, making the K-DUCER the most cost effective, reliable, and 4.0 intelligent solution for their assembly process.
Customer Satisfaction
Here is a conversation about the project and the end results shared by the Site Production Manager:
Q: What were the initial benefits of working with KOLVER fastening experts?
A: Overall support and quick response time throughout the process, timely quoting, demo product availability and thorough initial and follow up technical support.
Q: Do you see any increase in your process time?
A: The initial objective was to decrease operator cycle time and this was immediately evident. To further alleviate operator strain we incorporated KOLVER recommended screw feeding systems and overall saved about 3 seconds per screw in cycle time.
Q: How was your initial experience with the K-DUCER system?
A: The ease of interface for programming the controller either through the touch screen panel or the free Expand software helped a lot. The system is very intuitive and the availability of online “how to” videos along with onsite and web-based training made the process very user friendly.
Q: Are there any features that have really helped with your processes?
A: The torque & angle feature provided us added quality control over standard torque only systems. In addition, the screw counting technology and ability to both locally and remotely collect data provides us with a historical data base for each fastening event.
Q: Were there any other specific objectives you were able to meet?
A: Consistency during the fastening process by heightened control over the screwdriving “recipe” allowed for a tighter window of torque and angle measurement. The end result is far less rework and alleviating the pressure on the operator to make decisions pertinent to the fastening process.
Q: Can you elaborate?
A: With the ability to incorporate parameters like min/max torque, min/max time and min/max angle the operator can trust the system to guide them through a proper fastening sequence. If an error is met, we can quickly decipher the root cause and fix on the spot, this has a been a great improvement!
New Challenges
In early 2020, a need to improve fastening processes came from an technology company that has been offering electronics manufacturing and product development services for more than 40 years. At that moment, focus had shifted to producing top tier quality medical devices in an effort to combat the terrible effects of the COVID pandemic. This new challenge required to expand their capabilities to meet the growing needs of the new customer with the very latest technologies and systems necessary to deliver precision, high-quality life saving products.
Time was of the essence and they required precision fastening experts to evaluate their assembly processes, make timely suggestions and provide expedited delivery. A better accuracy and precision, together with traceability and communication were part of the new fastening requirements. After a complete review and evaluation of the assembly needs, the KOLVER team was able to offer a reliable and cost effective solution with the K-DUCER, KOLVER’s transducerized intelligent assembly system.
Intelligent Solution
The K-DUCER system consists of an advanced state-of-the-art controller and a range of handheld and fixtured electric screwdrivers for manual or collaborative assembly process. In addition to high accuracy and precision, the K-DUCER offers ergonomics and comfort that allow an easy and safe operation. One of the costumer most important requirements was traceability, added value that is offered to their clients, requirement also met with the K-DUCER system. The controller recollects operation data and brings real time feedback, making the K-DUCER the most cost effective, reliable, and 4.0 intelligent solution for their assembly process.
Customer Satisfaction
Here is a conversation about the project and the end results shared by the Site Production Manager:
Q: What were the initial benefits of working with KOLVER fastening experts?
A: Overall support and quick response time throughout the process, timely quoting, demo product availability and thorough initial and follow up technical support.
Q: Do you see any increase in your process time?
A: The initial objective was to decrease operator cycle time and this was immediately evident. To further alleviate operator strain we incorporated KOLVER recommended screw feeding systems and overall saved about 3 seconds per screw in cycle time.
Q: How was your initial experience with the K-DUCER system?
A: The ease of interface for programming the controller either through the touch screen panel or the free Expand software helped a lot. The system is very intuitive and the availability of online “how to” videos along with onsite and web-based training made the process very user friendly.
Q: Are there any features that have really helped with your processes?
A: The torque & angle feature provided us added quality control over standard torque only systems. In addition, the screw counting technology and ability to both locally and remotely collect data provides us with a historical data base for each fastening event.
Q: Were there any other specific objectives you were able to meet?
A: Consistency during the fastening process by heightened control over the screwdriving “recipe” allowed for a tighter window of torque and angle measurement. The end result is far less rework and alleviating the pressure on the operator to make decisions pertinent to the fastening process.
Q: Can you elaborate?
A: With the ability to incorporate parameters like min/max torque, min/max time and min/max angle the operator can trust the system to guide them through a proper fastening sequence. If an error is met, we can quickly decipher the root cause and fix on the spot, this has a been a great improvement!