Kappen innovates and reduces car manufacturer’s costs in BRL 800,000 per year

A little less than a year ago, Kappen – a Brazilian company specialized in tip dressers – took on a mission: “To develop an equipment that could reduce industrial process costs in a major car manufacturer”.

Kappen then allied its experience with the expertise of an awarded engineer to innovate and achieve the intended goal. Go ahead and find out how a BRL 18,000 investment in development led to immediate savings of BRL 800,000 a year.

The manual tip welding area of this car manufacturing company did not use an electrode tip dressing system, that is, the electrode replacement rate was very high. These electrodes used to be removed, disassembled, and then resold as scrap.

Make the most of the electrodes in the car manufacturing production process, thus significantly reducing costs. However, it was necessary to take into account that the car manufacturer had dozens of containers (barrels) of used electrodes, which could be dressed off-line and put back to the production line. Besides, it was decided that the first step would be to install an off-line equipment, to prevent this from impacting each operator’s working time.

Kappen assembled a pilot equipment that could tip dress electrodes outside the production line (off-line). After being tested for some weeks, the machine was then moved to the car manufacturer’s shop floor for the final test.

Installed in a room that is apart from the production area, the car manufacturer assigned an operator to tip dress (sharpen) all the dull electrodes coming from the assembly line.

The payback from using the equipment designed by Kappen was immediate. Given the high production volume of this car manufacturer, reusing electrodes alone led to an annual cost reduction of BRL 800,000; what’s more, production never stopped.

Beyond the customer, the result was so positive with this car manufacturer in Brazil that other 43 machines designed by Kappen were sold to a car manufacturer in Argentina, a business with an expressive volume for the industry, and another one is currently under test in a plant in Colombia.