Broanmain Plastics - Sweeping success in vehicle lightweighting

Broanmain Plastics - Sweeping success in vehicle lightweighting

Broanmain Plastics (United Kingdom) - Global street cleaning vehicle manufacturer Johnston Sweepers is reaping the benefits of switching from metal fabricated components to plastics moulded parts with the assistance of local injection moulder Broanmain Plastics.

The road sweeping company, founded over a century ago, has built up a solid international reputation for innovation, creating its first mechanical road surface cleaner, The Johnston Mobile Sweeper & Collector in 1937. Today, Johnston Sweepers, which was acquired by Swiss company Bucher Municipal in 2005, designs, builds and exports up to 1,000 municipal and contractor cleansing vehicles, from two sites - Dorking in Surrey and Latvia - annually. Ranging from compact urban sweepers to chassis mounted units, this year, they unveiled what is believed to be the world’s first electrically-powered, zero emissions truck mounted sweeper.

For some time, Johnston Sweepers had considered switching from metal fabrication, predominantly steel, to plastic components for vehicle components, such as caps, levers and water outlets. However, low production volumes combined with the initial capital outlay for mould tooling, made the investment hard to justify. Additionally, with vehicles exported the world over, components needed to be able to withstand extreme heat and cold temperatures, and perform in wet, dry, dusty and sandy environments.

Meeting with Broanmain’s managing director Wilf Davis helped to allay the team’s reservations. Steve Hurst, Head of Purchasing at Johnston Sweepers recalls: “Speeding up the manufacturing process for parts and addressing weight constraints is increasingly important to us. Anything that we are producing in steel or aluminium is quite volatile and expensive. Plastic is a good alternative if you can find the right partner.”

Trust is key, adds Steve. “With Broanmain, the team is enthusiastic and want to help, which is really important to us. They encouraged us to review our way of thinking, presenting us with a range of durable materials and sensible tooling prices that enabled us to realistically consider changing to plastic moulding. By sourcing the tooling from a high quality Chinese-based specialist, we were able to justify the payback.”

Getting the green light:

Starting with the filler cap, Wilf collaborated with Johnston Sweeper’s in-house design and purchasing teams to develop an initial prototype and trial the strength and durability of plastic materials. “Changing the process from metal to plastic means that the part has to change subtly. It isn’t a one for one comparison, so it was important to have our design team working closely with Broanmain,” explains Steve.

“The thickness of the components also proved to be a key challenge,” reflects Wilf. “We worked with material suppliers to source a dimensionally stable thermoplastic that would meet the tolerance requirements, opting for GF PA (glass filled polyamide - nylon) for the thicker components that required strength and ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) for the ascetics components.”

Further production trials and analysis by Johnston Sweeper’s Quality Control team affirmed the project’s viability, with Broanmain overseeing all aspects of the tool development. Steve estimates that switching from aluminium to plastic for these caps has reduced the part cost by half.

Since then, Broanmain has helped convert more than 30 metal parts to plastic, among them a complex suction water outlet integral to the road sweeping operation that previously cost £50 per metal part and required extensive welding and powder coating.

Being just a stones throw from Broanmain’s injection moulding facility has also proved beneficial to the physical injection moulding process, with 60% of all the materials that come into Johnston Sweeper’s factory on a three to four-day delivery cycle.

“Although we have what looks to be a big factory, it is limited in warehousing space,” adds Steve. “One of our key objectives is to work with our suppliers to hold the stock and we call it in regularly.”

Putting into context the volumes, Steve emphasises that each vehicle produced on-site only requires a maximum of six filler caps.

By operating a Kanban system, Broanmain provides a weekly line-side delivery to the Dorking factory, topping up shelves. This arrangement negates the need for Johnston’s to monitor stock levels, including after-sales spare parts.

Broanmain’s most recent development is a holster for the pendant that enables a driver of a sweeper to walk outside of the cab and operate the machine to lift and tip the body.

“The switch to plastic has been a slow development over the past decade,” ends Steve. “Where we see the opportunity for plastic we will use it. And as we move more into all electric vehicles and zero emissions, lightweighting will become increasingly imperative.”

Image 1:

The tooling for this latest component - a door controller - was designed by Broanmain, produced in China and is made at the Dorking mould shop to meet short cycle delivery times.

Image 2:

Johnston Sweepers builds and exports up to 1,000 municipal and contractor cleansing vehicles a year.

Image 3:

Broanmain physically monitors stock levels and provides a weekly Kanban line-side delivery to the Dorking factory.

About Broanmain:

Broanmain Plastics is a specialist family-owned technical trade plastic moulder and one of only a few UK plastic moulders to offer thermoplastic, thermosetting and injection moulding from one facility. Founded over 60 years ago, Broanmain supports a wide range of industries from aerospace, electronics and defence through to the science sectors and consumer goods, and supports customers with prototype development, tool trials, right through to high volume production runs.

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