Case Brief:
The customer, an industrial equipment maker, was encountering one sheet metal device experiencing occasional failures at the female threaded fasteners securing a display screen in place, which presented a high risky situation for the company in terms of making up all the sold units and regaining user confidence. The company was in desperate need of an emergency plan to save their products in order to minimize the loss and regain the faith of their customers through quick after-sales service and technology capability assistance. GEMS Manufacturing was introduced to diagnose the problem.
How the Story Goes:
The Problem
The customer, an industrial equipment maker, was encountering one sheet metal device experiencing occasional failures at the female threaded fasteners securing a display screen in place, which presented a high risky situation for the company in terms of making up all the sold units and regaining user confidence. The company was in desperate need of an emergency plan to save their products in order to minimize the loss and regain the faith of their customers through quick after-sales service and technology capability assistance. GEMS Manufacturing was introduced to diagnose the problem.
Our Solution
GEMS engineering team accessed why the female threaded fasteners (bulked components that were welded and attached onto the back side of front plate for the tablet holder) were being damaged when tightening up. The investigation observed some fasteners were actually non-wetting (or false soldering) during installation onto the stand frame due to unstable welding conditions in occasion, which was unfortunately not caught by the factory operators and quality inspectors.
The Result
GEMS engineer proposed the customer to change the manufacturing process by riveting (built-in process) the female threaded fasteners on front plate that would prevent the bolts from pulling out when tightening up and permanently release from welding worries without significantly increasing the production cost. We fabricated some samples which were tested immediately on the client’s table, and the customer was completely satisfied that the problem was solved, allowing production to resume.