Case Study: Multi-Component Assembly for the Instrumentation Industry

A customer in the Instrumentation industry approached WS Associates with a complex component consisting of three machined pieces that are inserted into each other in a concentric fashion.

The inner component is machined copper, the middle component is machined ceramic and the outer component is machined stainless steel.

The tolerances required of this unit is +/-0.0003! And the unit required the following capabilities for manufacture:

• CNC Wire EDM
• CNC Machining
• CNC Turning
• Lapping
• Electro-Mechanical assembly and testing

The customer had only one source for this component, from a small machine shop that did not have the capabilities or experience available at WS Associates. The customer was experiencing a 50% failure rate with these components from this supplier and, as a result, was required to perform significant additional testing and was only able to acquire a portion of their customer’s business.
At the customer’s request, WS Associates’ engineers flew to the customer’s location to review and discuss the component with their staff. After this review WS Associates came to the conclusion that the overall component tolerances could only be achieved by internally tightening tolerances to a significant degree. Fortunately, WS Associates has the capability and control to achieve these kinds of tolerances and is one of the few suppliers able to control all aspects of the manufacture.

Results

Using components manufactured by WS Associates, the customer has experienced ZERO rejects and 100% yield from this component!

This reduced their costs since they no longer needed to pre-test parts and have been able to increase shipments to their final customer. This has further resulted in them gaining additional business and increasing their product line to other customers.