Meeting emissions through "Smart" Manufacturing: Veri-Tek's in-process verification systems designed to help engine manufacturers build cleaner engines - Manufacturing Technology - Veri-Tek International Inc

Diesel Progress North American Edition,  August, 2002  by Mike Brezonick

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With the VT-1000 as a foundation, Veri-Tek has developed numerous engine assembly products to monitor and verify critical engine performance parameters as the engine is being assembled, using signature analysis. Along with those products, the company has developed a patented magnetic clamping system, along with a degaussing process that allows IPV and Smart Manufacturing stations to perform at modern production line speeds. "We use the concept of magnetic clamping to get in--process verification heads on many challenging engine applications," Juranitch said. "One of the hardest things to do is to measure piston protrusion to 10ths of a thousandth of an inch with a rigid measurement head that weighs nothing, gets on and off in a hurry and has no flanges it can get a hold of because they designed them out of the engine to make them lighter and less costly. But you have to be able to accurately make that kind of measurement on a batch size of one.

"So we developed the magnetic clamping technology as a fundamental tool to really do in-process verification effectively We've invested a lot of money to make it work in a seamless way that doesn't add production cycle time or station complexity and cost.

"We're really trying to do everything in a lean way We have to do it, because first of all, we're in Detroit and you get beat up to be lean. But really if you do something and it costs too much money to implement, nobody wins.

While IPV test systems are individually designed for each engine manufacturer customer, Veri-Tek has developed a series of engine assembly systems that have been used, in one form or another, by several customers in the diesel engine industry. These include:

Crankshaft torque-to-turn with end play verification system--The torque-to-turn product incorporates a universal drive module (UDM) that Veri-Tek has developed coupled to the VT-1000. The UDM is typically fitted with the patented magnetic clamping system. The station is usually hung from a balancer and manually engaged by an operator at production line speeds. It can be used to determine a variety of quality issues, including crankshaft to crank bore alignments; tight, oversized or missing block or thrust bearings; undersized block bearing bores; burrs on cranks; and contaminants in crank bearing bores, including dirt under bearings or between the bearing and crank.

Crank to cylinder bore coding system--This is used in diesel engine production to acquire critical measurements for the "call out" or coding of the piston and connecting rod subassemblies. The effect of getting this combination correct is an optimum piston protrusion above the firing deck, which is critical to the performance and emissions of a diesel engine, Veri-Tek said. The bore coding system quantifies the correct required sub-assembly and communicates the results to the next assembly station. It also identifies a number of conditions, including short or long crank throws or short or long decks to the crank centerline.