Rear casing for agricultural machinery manufacturer, McConnel Ltd

Brief

• Design for manufacture project on a rear casing for a remote controlled mower product.
• To replicate a product made from a composite material
• To ensure cost effective manufacture comparable to composite product

What we did

• Met with the customer to understand the requirements and review the design
• Reduced folding requirements from two operators to one
• Introduced break-off tabs to aid operator and speed-up complex folding operations
• Designed two jigs for integration with robot welder; one to hold the part in place and one for checking fixture for tolerance,
• Jigs allowed for part to be fully welded on the robot welder.
• Casing linished to create smooth continuous finish
• Prototype produced for review and customer approval

Outcome

• Successful replication of composite product
• Opportunity identified by design team to reduce the number of welds by further changing the folding. Second sample produced.
• Several units manufactured with view to regular repeats in the future.