Projects

Tooling modifications bring a 20-fold performance improvement for international manufacturer

Can you spot the major difference between the two tools pictured?

Yes, there a few differences visible to the naked eye, but the real difference is one you cannot see – the massive difference in performance between the two tools for our client.

Paragon Toolmaking were asked by Gripple Ltd to review a tool (not originally manufactured and installed by ourselves), which despite being relatively new, was not able to run for more than 11,000 hits without punches breaking, or needing a regrind.

Using our decades of experience in the industry, our team was quickly able to suggest modifications which were able to be made almost immediately.

This prevented the breakages to punches and increased the number of hits to 50,000 hits before regrinding was required.

We were also asked to manufacture a new tool, to operate on the same production line, alongside the modified tool.

As we’d not made the original tooling ourselves, our team had to reverse engineer and manufacture the project, which we did in a matter of weeks.

The new Paragon Toolmaking designed and manufactured tool is able to run for 240,000 hits before needing a regrind.

That’s more than a 20-fold performance improvement on the tool we were originally called to review – and nearly a 5-fold better performance than the modified tool.

Job demonstrated value of decades of toolmaking experience

Kevin Batty, General Manager at Paragon Toolmaking, said: “This was a job where we were really able to demonstrate the value of our decades of experience as we were able to quickly identify what was going wrong and suggest almost immediate modifications to the tool.

“These were changes which, to the expert eye, were quite an obvious, but subtle enough to prevent the constant breaking of punches, and to reduce the need for regrinding.

“The new tool we manufactured was run on the production line, running for 240,000 hits before needing a regrind, compared to the original tool which needed to be removed from the line every 11,000 hits.

“This kind of performance improvement can of course make a huge difference to a businesses’ production levels, efficiencies and running costs.”

Gary Carter, Special Projects Engineer at Gripple Ltd, said: “We are delighted with the service from Paragon Toolmaking as they were able to quickly identify the issues and resolve the matter for us.

“The tooling they have provided runs like a dream and just keeps going and going. We’ve also been very impressed at how much quieter they run too.”

Back to Projects