Case Studies

"Green" Solution

We helped a manufacturer of garage door openers convert from a zinc plating to an environmentally friendly autophoretic coating (A-coat). By having the A-coat facility on site, we helped our customer eliminate shipping expenses and also reduced inventory and improved turnaround time. This process is entirely environmentally friendly and provides a remarkably high level of surface protection and corrosion resistance.

Casting Converted to Stamping

Our customer was paying $5.00 for this cast aluminum assembly in quantities of 400,000+ from Eastern Europe. They were looking for cost savings ideas.
Solution: Replace the casting with 2 steel stampings, MIG welded in a proprietary design which mantains critical specifications, strength and durability.
Total savings including freight and related logistics costs – Over 40%!

Dimples Save Money and Make Customers Smile

Sometimes, a deceptively simple part can cause operational headaches. This was true for one end-user, a major car company, that has a relatively flat part stacked for feeding into automated equipment. Unfortunately, these parts tended to stick together causing downtime and costly delays.
Die-Matic was consulted and we suggested adding dimples to the surface of the part, solving the problem. Plus, we convinced the customer to eliminate a parts cleaning operation and save additional money by using vanishing oil at the press.

Tooling Costs Cut 65%, Lead Time Cut 75%!

A major plumbing supply manufacturer need a revised throat plate for a bathroom faucet that they wanted to bring to market in a short period of time. The engineers at Die-Matic were able to quickly re-design a current throat plate tool and add features to clear space for the plumbing. Tooling costs were reduced by almost 70% and lead time was cut to 4 weeks instead of 12 weeks for a new tool. As an additional plus, our customer was able to add three new SKU’s to their product line, thereby multiplying the savings they realized from the initial redesign.

100% Increase in Production Rate

One of our customers was working with a noise insulator for a braking application but was having difficulties since the part has adhesive on one side and difficult to stamp. The stamping press had to be stopped frequently and thoroughly cleaned which caused escalating manufacturing costs.
After studying the situation, we identified a coating for the tooling and a refrigeration station for the raw material which reduced the tackiness of the adhesive during the stamping operation. These steps eliminated the costly die maintenance and achieved a 100% increase in the production rate.

Two Parts Into One

A major automotive parts supplier came to us with an antilock brake bracket they had designed. The blueprint called for a two-piece construction that would be welded and assembled. Fortunately, Die-Matic was brought into the process early, so we considered some cost-saving alternatives. We used their design to develop a one-piece bracket that eliminated costly assembly steps, allowed us to reduce the thickness of the material, and employed a more common type of steel. We redesigned the part and then performed FEA testing to prove our unique solution would work. The result: the customer saved millions of dollars annually.