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The Client: Fibre Reinforced Plastics, Henderson, New Zealand
The Objective: To produce an easy-to-handle plug by opening
deadline for new DFS Shopping Complex in the old Customhouse in downtown
Auckland
Existing Design: Provided by the client
Re-design phase:Design rework completed in 6 hours - original design converted
to an acceptable format by Paul Zwaan for CNC machine operation
Machining phase: 18 hours from start to completion
Client comment:
The following is excerpted from an
article in the December 97 issue of the specialist magazine Composite,
written by the customer for whom Jackson Manufacturing created the
machining for the Galleria plug. The article examined costing (monetary and
time) for manual and automated manufacture of plugs.
I was recently faced with a problem
wherein my plug making shop was up to its eyeballs in development work and
I had a job come in that had a real tight time frame. If I couldn't get it
done within a certain I was going to lose it.
I was therefore forced to go 'outside'
for the development work. We went down the usual avenues, chasing up plug
makers and the odd boat shop, but all to no avail. Nobody was available to
undertake the work within the allotted time.
The answer came in the form of a 5-Axis
router. We found a computer guru who could translate the drawings into the
appropriate language, and gave us a disc that could be loaded into the
5-Axis machine. A number of sheets of medium density fibreboard (MDF) were
then glued together, and the whole lot delivered to the owner of the router.
About 5 days later, we had our plug…the
moulds were made, product completed with the whole job finished several
days ahead of schedule, much to everybody's delight. |