How PMS Diecasting Supplies Castings
An initial approach to PMS Diecasting will be dealt with by our technical sales staff. Most important of all is the type of casting and the volume required. Our area of technical expertise covers most zinc diecastings but we have developed over many years an expertise for running diecasting machines fully automatically with the use of 6 axis robots. It is not a new concept to integrate a robot with a diecasting machine but PMS has been very successful using robotics to manufacture high volume castings with built in vision camera quality control, all carried out at very fast cycling times which keep the cost of the finished casting competitive.
Frech DAW80 Diecasting Machine with Integrated Vision Inspection
Quality tooling which is designed with automation in mind is essential and to achieve low cost die castings. Our tooling prices are based on maximising the number of cavities in the die and incorporate many technical features which allow PMS to run efficiently with our robotic cells. This minimises down time and ensures a consistent supply of quality castings which can be scheduled against minimum stock inventory systems.
When quoting a new high volume zinc diecasting project the total volume is often higher than the spare capacity we have available. When this is the situation PMS will design tooling to manufacture one or two of the castings which best suit our production process and ease into the contract building a trading relationship based on available capacity. Once the working relationship has been established PMS will introduce new machines and robotics to take on the additional work.
We work very closely with our customers trying to minimise and eliminate every non-value added cost. Many costs can be eliminated through tooling design and production rates, we also reduce cost through strategic purchasing of zinc raw material and minimising stock. We currently link via the internet to one of our customers who current purchase over 30 million casting a year with 20 product variants. The Kan Ban levels on the highest volume castings are set between 1 and 1.5 days stock with PMS making daily deliveries in returnable metal hoppers which go straight onto the customer’s fully automated assembly lines.
The quality criteria for manufacture of castings is defined by the customer and implemented at PMS by our operations manager, production manager and quality manager.
