Sprocket Specialists Fix Chain Wear | Cogmatic Gear Machining

Cogmatic Quality Helps Customer Standardize

CASE STUDY #2

Customer:

A South Dakota manufacturer of trommel screens.

Challenge:

The customer was having a number of quality issues that were leading to complaints by their end users.

The customer had been welding five or six-flame cut individual segments together to form one ring sprocket. Unfortunately, welding that many segments together to form a concentric ring was extremely difficult – and the results were disappointing. The customer was troubled with:

Rapid Chain Wear
Noisy Operation
Misalignment between the Chain and Sprocket
Uneven Chain Loading

Many extra hours of labor were needed to assemble each ring sprocket.

They also were running into issues with their supplier holding tolerances on drum concentricity. The customer often had to send segments back for re-rolling or had to re-adjust them in their plant for varying tolerances. They were wasting a lot of time correcting supplier problems.

Cogmatic Solution:

Our large sprocket specialists at Cogmatic offered this customer a sprocket made as a solid ring. Their installers could simply slide it over the drum section and weld it into place. The solid sprocket formed a uniform concentric circle, resulting in longer chain life; quieter operation; proper alignment between the chain and the sprocket; and even chain loading patterns. It also reduced installation labor by six hours. Best of all, the price was similar to what they had previously been paying for inferior parts.

The customer was so impressed with Cogmatic’s quality, delivery, and value that they started using Cogmatic to make all of their drum segments needed to fabricate four models of trommel screens.

Cogmatic’s ability to provide concentric, uniform drum segments and deliver those quality parts JIT has helped their customer reduce installation time; provide the quieter operating machine, and increase the number of turns on their inventory. Cogmatic now supplies four (4) kits – with all the needed parts arranged in assembly order on two (2) or three (3) skids. The delivered skids are placed on the customer’s assembly line so workers can efficiently pull the parts off the skids in the order needed to complete each trommel screen.

The Rest of the Story:

September 25, 2012, Customer Follow-up

The customer is now using Blanket Orders, which allow them to send us an email asking for a release and to have their kits on their plant floor within ten (10) days.