Decker Anlagenbau has expanded a fully automated system for the partial surface treatment and coating of cylinders on behalf of a customer.
When the experts from Decker Anlagenbau delivered and handed over the system to automotive supplier Mahle in Baden-Württemberg at the beginning of 2020, they already knew that there would be a reunion - even beyond regular service and maintenance appointments. The Decker engineers designed the system for the partial surface treatment and coating of cylinders from the outset as a modular system so that it could be expanded if the customer's order situation developed accordingly.
"The prefabrication of individual modules can be the ideal solution for two different customer requirements," says Decker Managing Director Bernhard Hilliges. Either when volumes and sales figures increase for the customer, or when on-site assembly has to be done very quickly in order to disrupt ongoing operations as little as possible. "Decker is perfectly prepared for both situations," says Hilliges. In this specific case, both customer requirements applied at the same time: the required upgrade of the system to increase the possible production volume was to be implemented with the shortest possible production downtime due to the expansion work.
Partial surface treatment
Gripper in a module of the systemTheorder volume relevant to the system has increasedatMahle since the production handover of the original system. Accordingly, the Decker team was delighted to receive an order to expand the plant, which brought them a reunion with the Decker experts. In addition to the five existing treatment and coating modules, a sixth was added at the turn of the year - significantly increasing the output of the galvanizing plant.
The task of the system is the surface treatment and coating of cylinder running surfaces in order to achieve a wear-resistant surface to the piston running in the cylinder bore. A special feature of the sophisticated process of this special system is that only the actual cylinder running surface of the component comes into contact with process chemicals, rather than the entire component. "This is a very special system; not many fully automated systems can meet this requirement," explains Hilliges. The Decker team had already installed 50,000 parts in the basic configuration of the system.
Just-in-time process
Process container on the back of the systemTheassembly of the expansion module at Decker Anlagenbau was completed in November 2021, and in December 2021 the new module was installed on site at the customer's premises and further expansion and conversion work was carried out on the existing part of the system. A just-in-time process that had to be completed to the millimeter as well as to the minute, as the conversion work was scheduled for completion before the turn of the year and production was scheduled to start again at the beginning of January 2022. "Our Christmas present was the completion of the conversion work on time, despite the tight schedule," says Clemens Zhorzel, who is responsible for the expansion at Decker as project and assembly manager.
Mahle then put the plant back into operation as planned in January 2022. There will be further reunions even after completion of the project: Decker maintains a pickling system with dosing station installed in 2011 for the Baden-Württemberg company every year.
