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Koyo Bearings Czech Republic is one of the manufacturing plants of JTEKT, a multinational corporation based in Japan. As a leading global manufacturer of bearings, steering systems, axles, machinery and tools, Koyo supplies its products to brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, John Deere, Bosch and many others.
At Koyo Bearings Czech Republic, I work as a Tool shop leader. When a customer orders a new product, it is my responsibility to prepare a set of tools to produce that particular component. This is a multi operation process, starting with turning, grinding all the way to final assembly of the roller or needle bearing. We have been using the Prusa MK3 printer for tooling production since 2020 and more recently, since 2022, we have also acquired the TRILAB DeltiQ 2 printer. The more we print, the more we think of other opportunities for additive manufacturing. And you can see more and more parts in our plants every day, which help us produce our final products. One of the most interesting case studies where we use 3D printing is a part we call a bowden coupling. It's a coupling of two steel tubes that run bearing needles into the assembly machine. What's interesting about this is that if we want to detect these needles with an inductive sensor, we can't do it through a steel tube. The first idea to solve this problem was to use a plastic part made of polyamide. This material had an important drawback - albeit the adjuster was able to pick up the rollers inside this plastic part with a sensor, you couldn't inside the bowden coupling. We tried transparent polycarbonate, but in this case we failed again, since we found that the steel hose very often came loose and the whole connection failed.
To solve the problem, we are using a 3D printed part that can show needles or rollers through tiny openings, can clamp the hoses in the right places, and we don't even need another part to attach the induction sensor, because we can hold the induction sensor directly with this part. We are able to print this component on the DeltiQ 2 without supports, which is a considerable benefit for us, since this saves a lot of time both during printing as well as during postprocessing. I have to admit that we were very surprised how we can print such a tall component and how stable the print is also in terms of dimension, because for the flowing needles you need to have an inner diameter that is stable and free of any impurities. We have tried several 3D prints, we have tried several materials. We tried PETG, we tried polycarbonate, we tried composite materials. In the end, we settled on using composite materials where the part lasts significantly longer than it did before, the part performs much better than it did before because we can see very well into the windows that we printed. And as the biggest bonus, the part costs less than half the original price because 3D printing is significantly lower in cost.
A lot of things can be tested with very little cost, and that's what we need. To limit the cost, to be fast in those solutions, to be able to try it out very quickly, to test it in operation and draw a conclusion. This does not necessarily have to be the ultimate solution, the last version of that part or that design, but it's going to save us a very big chunk of time along the way, and it's going to help us a lot in terms of finding those solutions quickly.
5 сен 2023
