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The
Stuart McElrath Company's
equipment product
line has be design to be innovative,
reduce wear and increase serviceability. The
general perception is that a large portion of
foundry equipment suppliers are living of
recycled designs for the 60's and 70's. SMC is
trying to break that stereotype by applying
lessons learned from field experience and
incorporating them into the next generation of
equipment.
Early
equipment designs concentrated on proving and
refining the technology. In the 80's
manufactures often took a proven design
and reengineered it to reduce manufacturing
cost, often at the expense of wear life and the
ability to perform general maintenance tasks.
At SMC
we are using our years of foundry field
experience to provide the next generation of
foundry equipment. In areas the see large
amounts of wear, materials such as HARDOX is
being used to provide longer life to the part.
Areas of the equipment that provide access to
working parts are being added or enlarged for
easier inspection or part replacement.
SMC is
also looking at the fundamental design it's
equipment and reapplying basic engineering
principles that improve it's efficiently. SMC
often looks at other industries that have
similar design challenges and reviews how they
over came them. Similarly, SMC has often
observed other equipment and processes in not
related industries and incorporated them into
our own product line as a new way of solving an
old problem.
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