I was working with a machine builder in Indiana that builds OEM machines for the medical equipment industry.  The customer was experiencing failures and unacceptable operating life with the pneumatic cylinders that they used to move parts into an acid bath.  Although the cylinders were constructed of stainless steel, they exhibited premature shaft wear which caused the cylinders to fail in the corrosive atmosphere.

After investigating the application, we determined that the cause of the premature shaft wear was the design of the cylinder bushing. After understanding the root cause, we  replaced the failing cylinders with a specially designed SMC Pneumatic cylinder. This special SMC Pneumatic cylinder utilizes a different (and better!) bushing design than the other manufacturer’s cylinder.

The special SMC Pneumatic cylinder has now been in service for more than six months and is holding up much better than the other manufacturer’s product. The operating life of the SMC cylinder is at least double that of the previous cylinder.

Due to SMC Pneumatic’s ongoing attention to reducing their internal manufacturing costs, the customer’s purchase price of  this specially designed cylinder was actually less than that of the competitor’s standard cylinder!

As an SMC Pneumatic Technical Distributor (and a self described “airhead”), this is just another example of how I apply my technical knowledge to engage SMC engineers to solve customer pneumatic applications.

“The Technical Product Fair started at 8:00am and ended at 12:30pm,” said Dan Rose, Vice President of Sales.  “Bringing our product experts to the customer site and extending the fair through lunchtime made it convenient for many customer associates to capitalize on this opportunity.”

During the course of the day, the maintenance and engineering associates focused their discussion with the OTP and vendor technical associates on identifying projects to improve operations and save money.  Here is a sampling of the cost saving projects initiated during the Technical Product Fair:

• Conveyor Bearing Upgrade – improve the bearing life on inspection conveyors in the stamping plant.
• Regulator Performance – solve a problem regulator application in the body department that is creating false readings in a monitoring process downstream.
• Gearbox Survey – investigate an overheating gearbox in a stamping application and schedule gearbox surveys to fully document the gearbox applications.
• New Conveyor Application – work with the body department engineers to specify and install a new conveyor application.
• Caster Tread Life – work with materials engineering to investigate alternative caster tread materials to improve mean time between failure (MTBF).
• Hydraulic quick disconnects – investigate interchanges for quick disconnect couplings in an engine testing application to improve availability and lower cost.

“These cost savings projects are what I expect from our experienced technical experts. We work to apply products that improve the customer process and save them money,” Rose continued.

In addition to events such as the Technical Product Fair, OTP supports its customers via the unique “Ask the OTP Experts” on-line industrial product technical product support.  This feature enables the user to easily find technical information about industrial products from more than 60 manufacturers, and to quickly obtain specific answers to their application and product questions. “Ask the OTP Experts” enables maintenance, purchasing and engineering associates to easily connect with technical OTP experts in fluid power, pumps, mechanical power transmission, bearings and electrical products.   Warren Rupp pumps, Browning belts, McGill cam followers, Nitto Kohki quick disconnects, Sealmaster Bearings, NSK linear motion, pump repair, Lynair Cylinders, SMC pneumatics, Flowserve Pump, and Gusher Pump are some of the broad products supported by “Ask the OTP Experts.”

About OTP Indianapolis:

For almost five decades, OTP Indianapolis has merged the technical knowledge of its associates with a broad lineup of the industry’s best manufacturers of industrial fluid power, pump, mechanical power transmission and electrical products.  OTP Indianapolis maintains significant bearing and power transmission inventory and operates as OTP’s largest pump repair facility in Indiana.

OTP operates additional locations with local inventory and technical support in Fort Wayne Indiana, Columbus Ohio, San Antonio Texas, Cleveland Ohio, Middletown Ohio, Louisville Kentucky, Charleston West Virginia, and Terre Haute Indiana.

November 9, 2009

Contact:

Dan Rose

Vice President of Sales

Ohio Transmission & Pump

3192 Shadeland Ave

Indianapolis, IN 46226

(317) 541-1500

drose@otpnet.com

www.otpnet.com