Powdered Metal Component Assemblies–Providing Efficiency that Mirrors Lean Manufacturing Values
Component assembly is an important step for many manufacturing projects, and is often the last step taken to turn manufactured parts into a finished product. This assembly then either goes on to be sold to end-users, or is included into a much larger assembly. However, the more parts that are included in an assembly or subassembly, the more time is added to the overall production process. This is because more operations need to be done in order to put together all of those different components. For companies and manufacturers looking to improve their production efficiencies and adhere to lean manufacturing practices, component assembly can be a large issue.
Lean manufacturing is a popular and widespread set of practices with the goal of providing customers with the best value possible while allowing manufacturers to greatly improve their own production process. This includes examining each portion of production and determining where waste can be reduced or eliminated, like waste in time, movement, labor, materials, and costs. The assembly step is one area where significant time and labor can be spent in order to produce a quality product. Because there can be many different components that need to be part of an assembly or subassembly, various laborsome techniques may need to be deployed.
One of the major benefits of powdered metal manufacturing is its ability to reduce the number of individual components needed for an assembly or subassembly. Because powder metal sintering is an additive process, it can produce highly complex mechanical components, integrating more functionality and features into a single part. Multi-level compacting presses can achieve net or near-net shapes that reduce costly operations later on down the line as well. This in turn reduces the number of individual parts needed for the assembly later on.
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Sterling Sintered Technologies, Inc. has everything you need from engineering and design expertise to quality powdered metal manufacturing to excellent component assembly and subassembly services, all guided by an ISO 9001 certified quality management system. Check out our website to learn more.
