Well, we're back with another Pierson Workholding Fixture Friday.
And in this week, we're taking a new approach
to an old pallet.
So if you've watched
Fixture Friday number two, you've seen this pallet,
and we've used it for a long time to make the toe clamps
that go on to the perimeter of our pro mini and vacuum systems.
And we make a few thousand of these per production run
and have made literally tens of thousands
of these over the years with this pallet.
Now, it's safe to say that this old fixture has seen a lot of changes
and it's actually still holding up.
But in the practice of continuous improvement, we've redesigned it.
And we want to share this new pallet with you today.
So let's take a closer look at what we've created
So there's three things I want to highlight.
The first thing you'll notice is that we changed the pallet size.
Now, the original was ten by 12 inches.
And this new one is eight by 15.
Now, hold on. Wait a second.
15 inches long is not a pallet size that you guys sell.
Now, that's right.
But we've used the same tools that are available to you.
Specifically our pallet hardware kit to create our custom pallet sizes
that perfectly fit our exact pallet needs.
So by creating this 15 inch long pallet,
we were able to keep the weight down yet
actually add more parts
creating an even higher part density on this single pallet.
So when it was all done, this original pallet and the new pallet
were only ounces apart in weight.
But because we went to that higher density, we were able to squeeze
out 24 work pieces instead of 16 on this original design.
Now the second thing to notice
is how we used one pocket for two clamps.
This was key to increasing part density.
This staggered layout is a little more tricky to design,
but well worth the higher production numbers
Now, my machinist, Alex, told me that one of the things
he didn't like about the old pallet was how chips were constantly
getting stuck in the pockets around the clamps.
So we left a gap of about ten thousandths on each side of the clamps.
So a bunch of chips don't accumulate.
It doesn't solve all the problems a chip might get wedged
in that thou or 10 thou gap, but it's fine.
Finally, notice how we simplified part
swaps Alex removes all of the finished parts first
and then flips over the first op parts just an inch away.
Now the issue we had with the old pallet was that we would remove this
quadrant of parts
and then we had to replace them with the opposite corner
because they would locate towards the center off the same datum
edge, we couldn't just randomly put them here
because we would have been looking off two different surfaces
and the chamfers wouldn't have looked right on the second operation.
Now for the stats, this old pallet had a cycle time of 14 minutes,
10 seconds, which yielded a finished part every one minute.
46 seconds.
Now for the new one,
we also switched tooling and went to a Kyocera High Feed mill
which brought the cycle time down to 10 minutes 24 seconds.
Now remember that the old pallet yielded eight finished parts per cycle.
Well, this new one provided 12 finished parts.
This works out to a finished part
every 52 seconds.
Now, with these changes, we doubled production
by using better tooling, higher part density,
fewer tool changes per pallet and a custom pallet size.
And of course, ditching the old mentality that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Now sure this old pallet wasn't broken.
But there was plenty of room for improvement and doubling production
was a reward for taking on these changes.
Now, if you want to learn more about our pallet systems,
check out the cards we have at the end of this video
or check the description below for a link for more videos
so you can learn about our pro pallet system along with our hardware kits
where you can make any sized pallet you want, and consider subscribing!
We've got a lot more videos to teach and inspire.
So until next time, go innovate your production.