Problems

Solutions

Results

1.) Major recycler needed equipment to remove labels from plastic bottles prior to recycling.

FMT designed and manufactured a large, custom-engineered drum washer.

Machine can process 10,000 bottles/hour - a 200% increase in productivity.

2.) Tier-1 automotive supplier of batteries needed an automatic process to achieve proper level of sulfuric acid in each battery

FMT designed and manufactured a custom machine that was integrated in the current manufacturing line which automatically achieves proper acid level.

Machine automatically processes batteries to eliminate operator exposure and safety hazards.

3.) Major automotive supplier needed to increase rate of inspection for final assembly of finished products.

FMT designed and manufactured a custom machine utilizing laser and optical recognition to be integrated in their current manufacturing line.

Rate of final inspection was increased by 50% and accuracy was improved by nearly 75%.

4.) United States Postal Service needed equipment to remove anthrax from building exhaust during facility decontamination.

FMT was able to design and build a high-capacity HEPA filtration system within an extremely tight schedule.

The filter system met all QA requirements and was shipped on an accelerated schedule.

5.) A manufacturer of large steel wire needed to remove Calcium Stearate from their product which had an outside diameter of 3/8". The fact that Calcium Stearate is very tenacious and difficult to remove and their line was continuously running at a speed of 85 fpm made this a truly unique situation.

FMT designed and produced an in-line high pressure cleaning system to mechanically strip the Calcium Stearate from the wire at high pressure. The system was equipped with a clarifier “setting tank” to remove the Calcium Stearate from the process water. Using only water, no cleaning solution was required.

Reduced replacement cost of coil liners by 50% and increased uptime availability by 25%.

6.) A large manufacturer of aluminum castings needed a system to check for cracks on an integrated machine line. Due to their tendency to weaken the castings, hairline cracks were unacceptable.

FMT constructed an in-line monorail system that first cleaned the castings and then applied a dye penetrant. The castings then moved into a black-light inspection room where the operator was able to identify cracks in the castings. Crack-free castings then move through the inspection room and onto another in-line washer to remove the dye penetrant.

The quality of the components shipping from the factory improved dramatically, reducing warranty claims.  By analyzing the location of the cracks in the faulty components, the company was able to make adjustments to their manufacturing processes to ultimately improve product quality.

7.) A major aerospace supplier needed a high capacity, semi-automatic, and environmentally friendly system to remove all wax from air flow passages within high-speed turbine and jet engine airfoils.

FMT produced a custom-designed three-stage continuous belt washer system. The system was designed to operate at a high temperature (180ºF) allowing it to remove all wax. The system could also accommodate the full range of part sizes by using pin baskets as the fixturing devices for the smallest parts. To collect the wax and oil, the system was also equipped with an on-board oil coalescer.

Achieves same cleaning specification as vapor degreaser with no volatile emissions. The system is also being used to reduce manual intermediate cleaning of various parts for oil, coolant, and chip removal.