Core Values:
Driving Force to Reach a Goal

The challenge was to make a profiled bearing based on no historical experience or outside references, just a customer request. Some initial calculation was made to determine the correct profile, then tooling would have to be designed and made to grind the part. Therein lies another challenge: no tooling to make the part existed so it also had to be created. Keeping an open mind and letting ones imagination helped to develop the necessary tooling and integrate it with our grinding equipment. Once everything was created a test grind was performed with mixed results. A profile was achieved but it did not match the calculated results and it did not meet the projects expectations so it was put on hold. This was not a failure because it allowed the acquisition of knowledge and the stepping stone for future success.

Even though the first attempt was not a complete success, a year later, the project would arise again. During the time between, I tried to understand why the actual test didn’t correlate to the theoretical calculations. I looked at other processes; although different, they had some similarities and would give me insight on what to change in the future. It was also important to talk with fellow engineers along with production workers to get a broad range of insights and pull from their experiences. With the basic knowledge from the first test and new insights, the tooling was redesigned and the grinding machine was setup differently. This time, it was a success! The parts profile matched the theoretical calculation.

We would have to build on that initial 15 minutes of success in creating a small sample batch of parts to a process that would allow us to grind parts 24 hours a day, every day, consistently. To achieve this goal, it would take the dedication of not just me but Universal Bearings as a whole. This would require testing multiple grinding wheels and processes, which involved engineering and production employees working together to come up with the right combination to produce a consistent part that was repeatable. We had a setback during the testing when the equipment we were doing the test grinding on would not produce a good part. Working with the maintenance department, we determined that the dressing system was inadequate. This pushed us to reevaluate the equipment and decide to move the processing of the part to a different machine with a new style dressing system to achieve a good part again. The next obstacle would be when the tooling was worn out, how it could be refurbished. This is where collaboration with the machinists in our tool room department allowed us to come up with several different trials. From this, we have been able to develop fixturing and a method to refurbish the tooling in house. The final hurdle in this project was to devise a gaging method to verify the part diameter and profile while at the machine. In the end we were able to come up with a simple jig in combination with our current gaging to quickly verify the part quality.

With success comes a responsibility to maintain the integrity which we had achieved when we made the sample part, and told the customer we would be able to make the part. With this project, everything was new. New to engineering, new to the production employees, and everyone took a vested interest to make sure that the quality of the part was up to the standard required. Sometimes that required the tough decision to shut off the machine to repair something, even if we were behind on production. Or even admitting when we had an equipment issue that was causing a quality issue that you didn’t have the answer to fix it right away. That initial failure causes you to dig deeper and reach out for help to find a resolution.

What started as one project to create a new part turned into a three year odyssey with multiple small projects that had to be accomplished to achieve the end result. This could only be achieved by challenging the employees of Universal Bearings, relying on their dedication to satisfy the customer, and their integrity to say we are here to produce the best part possible.

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