BALL HOPPER INSERTS

Problem

The balls that go into the bearing are dumped into a hopper by the production worker. They are then transported to the assembly machine through the ball hopper chutes. When performing a changeover on seven such chutes, the operator had a tough time reaching the bolts as they were underneath the frame, leading to longer changeover times.

Solution

Because just one section of changeover took over 20 minutes for the simple operation of taking two bolts out. I modified the design so that instead of the bolts, I added a tab that fits in one of the holes from the top. Then 3D printed the new design and transferred it to the line.

Result

Reduced one section of changeover time from 20 minutes to 2 minutes by making a small design change.

Skills Utilized

• Lean manufacturing
• Problem solving
• Solidworks
• 3D printing

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