Posted on: 06-15-2012
Metal fabricator Mills Products (Brentwood, TN) is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Middleville Tool and Die to be the exclusive appliance-industry licensee for an innovative, patented tubular stamping technology that is also finding wide applications across the automotive and furniture industries. This fully automated process will allow Mills Products to increase its productivity by up to four times in some cases.
The central innovation, a progressive die system that utilizes a carry tab to move parts through different stations, will completely mechanize Mills’s tubular stamping process, saving time and money. Without this technology, the manufacture of similarly complex parts requires that unfinished materials be hand-transferred through five different stations.
Besides increased productivity and cost-savings, this tubular stamping technology also offers a more lenient set of parameters for Mills’s product designers and process engineers, allowing them a greater degree of creative freedom. Under the right set of circumstances, the technology could potentially be used to replace more costly tubular applications that utilize castings or aluminum extrusions.
The instant gains of this innovation, coupled with the larger possibilities it promises, gives Mills Products a significant edge over its regional and national competitors. The fully mechanized process will also allow the company to compete in the international market as Mills drives costs down and productivity up, passing along these benefits to its clients.