Modular Pallet Car Design

JMPancher Consulting was hired by an OEM to update an offering for one of its proprietary machines.

The straight grate pelletizing machine consists of a loop of pallet cars which carry the pellets through the furnace. These pallet cars wear significantly over time and are one of the highest cost maintenance items in the system.

JMPancher worked with the OEM to redesign the majority of the components that make up the car in order to lengthen the service life, cut costs and make parts more universal from machine to machine. The ultimate goal being the ability of the OEM to stock various, unfinished castings which could be rapidly configured to work across multiple machines. In addition, a parametric model of the car would be created which salesmen could use to configure a car, with the input from a customer, and use this to generate drawings of said pallet car.

THE PROBLEM

UPDATING DESIGN TO MAXIMIZE PROFIT

Update Pallet Car Design while minimizing Unique Parts across the machine family

The OEM was seeking to leverage their large installed base as a means to garnering more replacement part sales. To more rapidly supply the assembled pallet cars, the OEM felt that stocking of semi-finished castings, which could be machined and assembled in various ways, would give them an advantage over competitors while minimizing costs associated with inventory.

Further, the OEM was hoping to update designs and materials to increase the longevity of the components for the customer’s benefit.

THE SOLUTION

DESIGN COMMON REPLACEMENT PARTS

Using our extensive experience in the iron ore processing industry and on-hand experts in manufacturing, quality control and material selections, JMPancher Consulting designed, modeled and created manufacturing drawings for a new “Modular Pallet Car”. This design would have commonality of parts across a large family of machines. Partially machined castings would be warehoused, and final machining operations would make castings useable for each customer.