For many years, OKAY Industries, Inc. has supplied precision production stampings with standard tooling lead times. The New Britain, Connecticut-based company and its predecessor, B. Jahn Manufacturing, have been designing and building progressive dies since 1911. But several months ago, Okay made some changes that have significantly broadened and upgraded its services. Besides adding a new Minster E2-400-ton press that permits production of more complex parts in a single operation, the company undertook a comprehensive program to reduce tooling lead time.

Okay Industries, Inc., is a supplier of precision stamped components and subassemblies to the automotive, medical and surgical, defense and firearms, and general industrial markets. The company specializes in the volume manufacture of small-to-large components with complex shapes, which are produced to tight tolerances on sophisticated progressive dies.

In addition to stamping, the firm provides a full range of secondary operations at its 100,000-square-foot facility in New Britain. Services offered include machining, automated assembly welding, and finishing. Okay also offers subcontract capabilities in heat treating, painting, passivating, and anodizing.

Establishing Rapid Tooling

The lead-time reduction program incorporated major changes to the traditional approach of designing and building metal stamping dies. Okay's focus was not only to reduce lead times by 50%, but to produce less expensive tooling that would be more flexible for part designs and changes requested by customers "on the fly."

Recently, a key customer who was aware of Okay's new capability asked for help on a component for a medical stapling device. The part presented unique problems in that it was made from 0.028-inch thick, 1/2-inch hard 302 stainless steel with a perimeter wall thickness of 0.028 inch. Initially, it had been produced one at a time, by wire EDM. Earlier attempts made by other stamping contractors to stamp the part had been unsuccessful because of rolled edges and twisted cross sections.

Okay received prints for the component on a Wednesday. The firm's engineering department then arranged a design review meeting with the customer's engineers for the following Monday. In the meantime, Okay's engineers performed several designed experiments to be sure that the part could be produced successfully. This process also produced several questions for the design review meeting.

At the meeting, the customer was able to share information on the total product assembly and answer questions. A key result was that the drawings were mutually modified for manufacturability. Based on the results of the meeting, the customer requested delivery in six to seven weeks.

But by using its rapid tool development approach, Okay was able to promise delivery of the part in five to six weeks. Previously, lead time would have been approximately 12 to 14 weeks with the use of a more traditional approach.

Three weeks after receiving the purchase order, the customer picked up samples and an inspection report, assembled the samples into finished products, and called Okay that day to place a production order for 80,000 pieces.

Creating a Team Atmosphere

According to Greg Howey, President, Okay Industries has been able to develop its rapid tooling by providing "the latest in equipment, technologically innovative software, and a compatible design/build process" to its designers, toolmakers, and quality engineers. The firm's engineering software, AutoCAD for Windows, is customized with several enhancements that are said to virtually produce detailed drawingsand the die set designautomatically from the completed tool assembly design. The engineering software operates on networked Pentium PCs.

The company's engineering database is used to translate work instructions, for its wire EDM machines and CNC vertical machining center (VMC), through NC software. Because the firm is using the CAM software to program its machining of large blocks of tool steel, it can incorporate many details "in a matter of minutes," versus the six-to-eight hours required by previous methods.

To achieve its rapid tooling capability, the company first needed to create an environment that made use of all of its technical expertise. "Rather than the traditional approach of a design engineer designing in a vacuum without input, we chose to form a consensus with all those involved in the building and production end of the program as well," said Mr. Howey.

Next, the company designed an array of reusable tooling to perform designed experiments that proved out tooling concepts. They also produced real development data that could be used in the final design with known results rather than theoretical "guestimates." According to Mr. Howey, the use of designed experiments has reduced de-bugging time by as much as 70%.

Okay succeeded in creating a team-oriented atmosphere where everyone, from design engineer to production machine operator, has a stake in the success or failure of each design. According to Mr. Howey, the benefits were twofold. "We realized better designs and less expensive tooling," he said.

Refining the Software

At this point, the firm focused on customizing its CAD software to generate designs that would be modular and flexible so that off-the-shelf tooling components could be used with minimal alterations, said Mr. Howey. "Another benefit is that 30 to 40% of rapid tooling components can be utilized in production tooling, reducing the cost of production tools significantly," he added. "In addition, utilizing 'hard tooling' components in prototype tooling demonstrates production capability on critical features.

"By refining our software for design and CNC programming, we have been able to begin a design and start cutting steel within hours, rather than days, after the start of the project. Having the capacity to universally alter a design in minutes has given our customers the advantage of quick, cost-effective design changes without negative impact on delivery schedules," he noted.

Design and Build

Mr. Howey said that the critical factor in a successful rapid tooling program is to make the first tryout part as close as possible to specifications, followed by predetermined tooling changes to bring the part to print. Okay's design and build process has evolved to incorporate the following steps:

• A design review (identification of potential problems)
• Up front R&D of potential problems
• Establishment of a tool development strategy
• Completion of die assembly design and detailing concurrent with beginning machining
• Completion of components and assembly
• Analyzing the first tryout part against specification and implementing the development strategy.

Quick & Accurate Inspection

The final element of the company's rapid tooling development process is quick and accurate inspection feedback. By using a RAM Optical CNC vision inspection system, Okay's quality engineers can pre-program, from the part print (in digital form), how each feature is to be measured. When the first tryout part is submitted, the inspection is completed in minutes, if not seconds. It includes a complete inspection report. In addition, the digital data are converted back to AutoCAD to permit comparison of actual results versus specifications, and to plan the next development tool changes.

Future Direction

The enhanced capability of the company to design and build progressive die tooling more quickly and reliably has given it the confidence to undertake even larger, more complex tooling programs. To support that direction, Okay recently installed a new Minster E2-400-ton press with a 120-inch bed. With this new press, Okay is expanding into new applications such as large brackets, chassis-type parts, and other high-volume large parts. The large press extends Okay's ability to manufacture large complex parts at a lower piece price with better process capability.

Certified to ISO-9002, OKAY Industries is currently seeking QS 9000 certification.