Seeking a lower cost alternative to anodized, machined aluminum pulleys for its high-speed PunchPlus® Inserter, Unique Solutions®, Inc, needed design and manufacturing assistance in converting all pulleys in the inserter to FDA approved N6650 nylon.
The PunchPlus® Inserter has a drive mechanism which requires several, precision timing pulleys. The pulleys were machined from aluminum bar stock and hard coat anodized. This approach, however, had significant drawbacks: it was costly to manufacture, and the inconsistent thickness of the hard coat anodized finish created a host of fit and tolerance problems.
Plastic Injection Molding Pulleys
Unique Solutions turned to Torque Transmission for help. Torque Transmission adapted the Unique’s design so the pulleys were economically manufactured using plastic injection molding.
“Replacing all aluminum internal pulleys with molded nylon proved to be a smart move,” stated Norm Hendle, Plant Manager for Unique Solutions, “We saved significant money.” In fact, all of the tooling and engineering was paid back in just the first production run – that’s a huge ROI,” he concluded.
In addition to the cost savings to Unique Solutions, the injection molded pulleys run quieter than aluminum. And, the injected molded plastic offers consistency from batch to batch and pulley to pulley, eliminating the frustrating and time-intensive fitting issues inherent with the anodized aluminum pulley.
“More and more, we’re helping customers reduce costs and improve performance through innovative design and precision manufacturing,” commented John Rampe, President of Torque Transmission. “Our highly skilled engineers combine their application-specific expertise with finding the right combination of high-strength, low-cost materials to meet or exceed the customers’ requirements,” he concluded.
Learn More
You can learn more about the advantages of injection molded pulleys and nylon pulleys in the whitepaper Nylon versus Metal Pulleys: Application Requirements Drive the Proper Material Specification. The whitepaper explores each of these advantages in detail as well as:
- Benefits, advantages and limitations of Nylon Pulley as compared to Metal Pulleys
- Properties of and ATSM standards for our Nylon Pulleys
- Design Considerations when using Nylon Pulleys
Click here to download your free copy of the Nylon vs. Metal Pulleys whitepaper!
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