Shelvcraft used U-shaped channels as reinforcing on their shelving products. The channels were being bent in 4 strokes, out of 1mm thick material, and this was identified as a bottleneck in their production.
Manrepco was approached to help improve the productivity of the channel bending operation. Rather than simply redesigning the tool to bend the channel more quickly, Manrepco worked with the customer to redesign the reinforcing channel itself.
The objective was not to create a U-channel, the objective was to reinforce the part, and to that end an improved channel design was created that utilized half the material thickness, and resulted in a stronger and lighter reinforcing member than the original.
After working with the customer to redesign the part, Manrepco then designed a tool to bend the part in a single stroke, ultimately achieving a 75% reduction in production time, an increase in part accuracy and a 15% reduction in material costs.