That was certainly the case when Jendamark developed our very first shrinking machine for catalytic converter assembly back in 2012. Around that time there was an evolution in the automotive industry fuelled by a new drive towards lightweighting – everybody wanted to make cars lighter and more fuel efficient, with lower emissions. So, every part of the automotive supply chain was tasked with making their products lighter.
With its heavy steel casing, the exhaust system was one of the components in the redesign spotlight. Inside this system lies the catalytic converter, which converts exhaust gases into less harmful emissions.
Catalytic converters vary greatly in shape because they are designed to fit the limited space available in a particular vehicle model’s engine bay.
The catalytic converter too has a stainless steel can or housing, which is shrink-formed to secure its core components – the insulation mat and ceramic monolith – in the correct position for the lifespan of the vehicle. Shrink-forming is necessary because each baked monolith varies slightly in size and it’s important to get the tension right between mat and monolith. This shrinking is done by compressing a formation of individual tapered segments so that they close in and collapse the can evenly around the monolith to achieve the required can shape.
Jendamark received repeated requests from canning customers to make their can walls thinner and thinner. For them, it was not about saving material costs – because there is a commercial tipping point where ever-thinner specifications become complex to achieve and therefore more expensive. It was about meeting their end-customer’s evolving needs.
At a standard 1.5 millimetres thick to begin with, the steel can stood to be lightweighted, but it would be technically challenging.
When Jendamark started looking at available shrinker options, there were two or three companies offering machines with only a standard eight-segment set-up. The problem was that the smaller the number of tooling segments used, the larger the gaps between them, resulting in a bumpier finished product – especially noticeable on thinner cans.
That’s when we saw the gap in the market to solve the deformation gap problem. One customer had a specific 12-segment requirement, so we decided to build our own shrinker that could accommodate this and shrink thinner cans – in both round and non-round, complex shapes – with high-quality, smooth results.
Of course, we had never built such a machine before, but the customer said, “If you make it and it works, we’ll buy it.”
So, instead of trying to work around an ill-fitting, ready-made solution, we took a huge leap of faith and invested our own time and money into developing Jendamark’s own shrinking machine capable of consistent, high-quality canning. It turned into eight months of round-the-clock shifts by the engineering team, literal blood, sweat and tears – and eventual success.
It certainly wasn’t easy, but the key differentiator was teamwork. As a team, I think we all went through cycles of doubt and disbelief, but fortunately never at the same time. When one of us was about to give up and say, “It’s never going to work,” someone else would say, “No, we can do this, we are so close.” And we were.
Click the image to watch the video.
Today, our refined machine offers 16-segment shrinking for commercial vehicles (with automated or semi-automated loading of heavy segments) and the standard 12 (with manual loading of lighter segments) for passenger vehicles. Jendamark’s shrinker can deliver a stainless steel can that is just 0.8mm thick – although it has been tested right down to 0.6mm.
For automated tool changes, we have redesigned the actuation mechanisms as part of the tooling instead of the machine itself. This allows tool changes to happen much faster, loading all segments in a single, prefilled cartridge instead of one by one.
While manual loading of commercial vehicle cans, using complex grippers and other equipment, can take anywhere up to an hour, we have got the automated tool change down to less than 60 seconds – currently the fastest in the world.
It’s significant because a customer building multiple variants is saving almost an hour per tool change daily – which has a material impact on production time and volumes.
Over time, we have also developed an alternative shrinker version with vertical loading, which takes up less floor space for smaller factory footprints.
In the end, the development of the shrinker paid off and delivered positive benefits for everyone involved. It allowed our customers to sell lighter catalytic converters to their customers, which made them more interesting to the OEMs, which gave them more business, which in turn meant more business for Jendamark.
So, the lesson is probably right there in the machine name – don’t shrink from a manufacturing challenge. It might be difficult and risky, but it is worth doing if you can see the business opportunity on the other side.
For a technical masterclass on Jendamark’s shrinking machine, our managing director Quinton Uren walks us through it in this video. Click the image to watch the video now.
To learn more about the servo-geared processes involved, read this article about our partnership with SEW-EURODRIVE here.
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