Below is a copy of an article that was written and will be published in a magazine in July 2015. The article highlights my latest accomplishment.

Thank you,

The transformation to an overachiever

On its first day, leveler enables the cutting of material for two shifts of work in less than three hours.

Elkhart, Ind. May 2015 – Recreational vehicle (RV) builders in the U.S. Norco Industries, a key industry supplier, found that an important cut-to-length (CTL) line had reduced the productivity of its downstream processes The company identified the strip leveler in the line as the weak link in its operations. It added cost for rework, damaged tooling, scrap and forced buying product from outside suppliers. The CTL line itself ran slowly to compensate for its manual limitations, and the productivity of downstream processes was slowed because of material quality. Replacing the manual leveler with a CoilMaster 50 – a (refurbished machine at that) has since turned the CTL line into a speed demon, able to process enough material in 2.5 hours to supply two shifts of downstream work.

Norco Industries is a privately owned, diversified manufacturer of automotive-quality fabricated components, machined parts, tooling and services for the RV, transit, school bus, truck/van and medical markets. Typical products include seating systems, slide-outs, trailer frames, chassis components and roof bows, as well as heavy duty lifting equipment. In addition, the company provides engineering design, prototyping, testing services and warehousing, all from a 390,000 ft2 (36,200 m2) facility in Elkhart, IN. Norco’s product line consist of many well-known brand name such as ADNIK, BAL, FLO-DYNAMICS, NORTOOL and NORCOAT.

With the retiring baby-boom generation increasingly choosing domestic travel, RVs have been selling well and driving business for suppliers like Norco. "We were glad to have increasing business, but had reached the point where the material coming from our CTL line was slowing our downstream processes," said Larry Green, Continuous Improvement Specialist at Norco. "This line processes up to 9-ga (3.785 mm) high-strength steel from coils a maximum of 34.625 inches (880 mm) wide. The strength of the material has increased to reduce vehicle weight, and initially we slowed the line down to better achieve flatness. But the material was not as flat as our spec called for. Worse still, it would stress relieve during laser cutting, welding, shearing or punching, causing jams in feed systems, and broken punches and holders. We compensated by slowing production, managing the material issues in downstream machinery, trying to temper the cut material in house, as well as buying cut material from suppliers.

"We clearly needed a new leveler in order to increase productivity," added Green "We contacted ARKU and forwarded some of our material to Cincinnati for a leveling test. The test material was not only flattened perfectly, but what impressed us most was that it stayed flat after punching and laser cutting in our machines. In fact, the flatness was better than the cut material we had been purchasing from suppliers, so we ordered a machine."

The Cincinnati office was already in the process of reconditioning a used leveler that would fit Norco's application. "After getting the order, we finished up the work and were able to install the CoilMaster and threading unit just 10 days later," said ARKU Technical Director Nicholas Miller.

The refurbished machine has a leveling section with 21 rollers and can process material widths up to 43.4 inches (1,100 mm) wide, with a maximum yield of 600 N/m2 (ARKU supply U.S. equivalent). It is equipped with ARKU's patented EcoPlan® drive, critical to processing high-tensile steels.

The EcoPlan drive optimizes the torque on each leveling roll, producing 30% more leveling power for the same energy requirement as machines without the system. More important, it helps avoid any slipping of the leveling rollers as they encounter differing loads while the strip is processed. The EcoPlan drive compensates for the relative differences in the speed of the rollers and strip, ensuring quality production with lower energy requirements. In addition, the leveling section is designed with quick change rollers, which makes it easy to clean them and maintain quality.

The CoilMaster, its electrical cabinet and threader were installed in just XX days, with great cooperation between the ARKU and Norco teams, noted Green. "On our very first production day, we processed all the steel needed for two shifts of work in just two and a half hours, and every part was correct," he added. "Our operators are much more efficient now, too, because of the repeatable setups they can achieve with the electronically controlled AKRU machine.

"In the past our leveler limited the production rate for everything downstream, but with the capacity reserve we have now on CTL, we can focus on some of the downstream operations to see if we can use some of that reserve to our advantage."