Ceco
Door Products
| COMPANY/LOCATION: |
Ceco Door Products, Milan, Tennessee |
| PRODUCT: |
Hollow metal doors and frames |
| YEARS IN BUSINESS: |
20 in the Milan location |
EMPLOYEES:
ANNUAL SALES: |
Approximately 500
$85 Million |
| SITUATION: |
Ceco Door Products was looking for a way to improve the process of
welding the seams on its Medallion line of doors. These doors are manufactured
in two pieces and welded together. The company uses automatic welders that
track down the seam of the two pieces and weld the seam. Looking for assistance
on this project, the company contacted the University of Tennessee Center
for Industrial Services, which referred them to the Oak Ridge Centers for
Manufacturing Technology. |
| PROJECT: |
A welding expert from the Materials Joining Center at ORCMT worked
with Ceco's engineers, examining their welding process and equipment and
offering suggestions on how to improve their process. These suggestions
included using a different system of cleaning the metal before welding
and a different control system on the welders to improve their welding
efficiency and other process changes. |
| RESULTS: |
Implementing these suggestions has saved the company about $12,500
annually in reduced production costs and allowed the company to
avoid the cost of buying a new piece of equipment that might not have met
their production needs.
Gary Hampton, senior tooling engineer for Ceco Door Products, said the
assistance for the company "helped us quite a bit. I was most impressed
with the technological information I could draw from ORCMT. They provided
us with a lot of technical background that we basically didn't have." |
Technical assistances provided to the private sector by the Oak Ridge
Centers for Manufacturing Technology (ORCMT) and its manufacturing extension
partners throughout the United States.
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