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News Release from: Clamason Industries | Subject: Pressed metal enclosure solutions
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 04 April 2007
Pressed metal enclosure solutions
ECU housings are produced at Clamason in a range of steels and non-ferrous metals either using progression tooling on a 200t Weingarten or 250t Chin Fong Stamtec Worcester press.
Clamason Industries' broad spread of pressed metal enclosure solutions for European, Japanese and American automobiles range from airbag inflator housings to casings for in-car entertainment (ICE) systems and engine control units (ECUs) From factories at Kingswinford (West Midlands) and Nitra (Slovakia), one-third of Clamason's present production goes to the automotive manufacturing sector, including World-class customers such as Autoliv, Delphi, Hitachi, Intier, Magna Kansai, Motorola, TRW and Zodiac
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 1 Mar 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Today's cars rely to a great extent upon ECU's, consisting of a CPU and associated logic to convey input/output signals that control functions of the vehicle as disparate as engine monitoring, fuel supply, airbag deployment, anti-lock braking and HVAC, not to mention more future-orientated technologies such as telematics, active suspension control and drive-by-wire systems.
ECU's are engine-specific but not vehicle-specific and may be positioned under the bonnet (as a sealed unit) or behind the dashboard (as a non-sealed unit).
ECU housings are produced at Clamason in a range of steels and non-ferrous metals either using progression tooling on a 200t Weingarten or 250t Chin Fong Stamtec Worcester press or, alternatively, on one of the company's innovative Chin Fong Worcester transfer press lines of six presses located together, with rapid transfer of each pressing between stations by pick-and-place robots.
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Subcontract presswork and fabrication company solved the problem of how to easily cut plastics cling film or aluminium foil from a roll purchased for either commercial or domestic catering.
Window components from stainless steel
Clamason is currently manufacturing 2.5 million per year of a component for Securistyle, which is produced in pairs for the top and bottom of a window.
Eddy current detector solves presswork problem
Eddy current sensors, located within a press tool, measure the gap between stripper face and die in the closed position to detect pierced slugs, which otherwise might stick in the strip.
The transfer press allows the manufacture of highly complex parts with no carry strip and has the facility to reverse the burr side automatically within the process.
Meanwhile the 200t and 250t hydraulic presses have beds up to 2.5m long to enable the manufacture of pressings requiring thicker materials, multiple stages, deep draw or a combination of all three.
There are less than half-a-dozen ECU manufacturers in the World, and Clamason provides EMI-shielded enclosure solutions for three of them - Delphi, Hitachi and Motorola - each of whom has a different design approach.
In fact Clamason has been recognised by Delphi Automotive Systems as a "Worldwide Supplier of Choice".
Delphi, headquartered in Troy, Michigan, USA, is the World's largest automotive supplier and Clamason's largest automotive customer.
For their solution, Delphi opt for a deep aluminium casting with an aluminium cover, whereas Hitachi go for a shallow casting with a deep drawn steel cover and Motorola prefer a flat pressed base with a folded steel cover.
In all cases, built-in features such as bends, grooves and slots are intricate, highly toleranced and customer-specific.
The Clamason pressing is often required to be more tightly toleranced than the casting it covers.
Examples of Clamason's complex, EMI-shielded, automotive ECU housings include the Motorola base for Volvo's Penta engine and its mating top, both made from galvanised mild steel, a zinc-plated mild steel top cover for Clamason customer Hitachi destined for Nissan and Renault models and an aluminium grade 5005 top cover for Clamason customer Delphi going into Renault and Ford cars.
These are representative of a wide selection of highly engineered, quality-assured automotive components manufactured and supplied on a just-in-time basis by Clamason Industries to meet the increasingly exacting demands of the international marketplace.
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