Improved wire assembly speeds production
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William Hughes product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Apr 19, 2004
When William Hughes was asked to quote on a bent wire assembly used in the manufacture of car seats, its engineers helped redesign the component to speed assembly on the production line.
When William Hughes was asked to quote for the supply of a bent wire assembly used in the manufacture of car seats, its engineers became involved in the redesign of the component to speed assembly on the production line.
The wire component is used to secure the seat trim to the frame in a car seat back and comprises a length of rigid wire with a loop at each end.
Discussions with the manufacturer established that the rigidity of the part made it difficult to assemble into the seat and with this in mind, the application engineers at William Hughes set about re-engineering the component.
The re-designed part needed to be strong, easy to manufacture at low cost and quick to assemble into the seat.
One option was to replace the rigid wire with a flexible cable with wire hooks at each end.
This idea was developed by William Hughes, and evaluation of the improved design quickly established it met all the design criteria.
Having agreed the design, the next challenge was to develop a production process that could produce around 1.5 million of these parts annually.
William Hughes has been making springs and bent wire components for many years and its engineers have experience of solving all types of engineering problems as well as having access to the latest computer design software and CNC controlled machinery.
In this case, a special purpose machine was developed to drill the tiny hole in the centre of the leg of each hook to enable the cable to be securely crimped.
The diameter and depth of this hole is critical to ensure that the necessary force is applied to the cable when it is crimped and the special machine uses the latest technologies and electronic systems to monitor this operation.
There are many other examples of projects where William Hughes has worked with its customers to engineer the best solution and then manufacture to a high quality and low cost using its high capacity production plant, which is one of the most sophisticated in the world.
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