SPIROL Industries says that the use of its butted-seam spacers to replace more expensive cut tubing in an automotive chassis frame bracket design has resulted in significant financial savings.
The manufacturer was originally using a piece of cut tubing as a spacer used to support two plates in an automotive front-end assembly. The tubing was cut to the proper length, placed between the two plates and then welded in place.
Due to the fact that a 16mm bolt was passed through the inside diameter of the tubing, the inside diameter needed to be burr free. In the process of cutting the tubing to length, a burr was left on the inside diameter and therefore, in order to meet the quality requirements, a secondary operation of deburring was needed, adding a great deal of cost to the cut tubing.
SPIROL recommended a standard, butted-seam spacer to replace the cut tubing in this application. These roll-formed spacers have clean cut, square ends and therefore no secondary operations are required to ensure a burr free part. As this was an automotive application, the Spirol spacer had to undergo numerous tests to ensure the strength would meet the requirements previously set.
SPIROL spacers solve automotive chassis frame bracket design requirement
“By recommending a butted seam, roll-formed spacer for this application, the customer was able to save a significant amount of money. The cost of the cut tubing (with the secondary deburring operation) was 0.37 euros per piece. The price for the butted-seam Spirol spacer was 0.13 euros per piece, resulting in overall savings of 160,000 euros per year.”
More details are available in the spacing applications section of SPIROL’s Optimal Application Engineering portal.
Having spent a decade in the fastener industry experiencing every facet – from steel mills, fastener manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, as well as machinery builders and plating + coating companies, Claire has developed an in-depth knowledge of all things fasteners.
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