A vehicle suspension products manufacturer in the automotive industry was having problems with its automotive suspension stabilizer water quench line. When the production line was set up, the stabilizer bars were solid bar material and were quenched in oil. The line makes stabilizer bars from tube steel, which requires a water quench. Due to this change from oil to water, the grease-lubricated cam followers on the tooling fixtures locked up in less than eight weeks due to constant cycling through the water bath. The cam rollers would then flat-spot and wear additional components on the line — tracks and radius wheels.
The company turned to Graphite Metallizing for a solution. The company replaced those cam followers they were using with its Graphalloy Type 1217 bronze-grade cam followers, installed on three tooling fixtures (four on each) and a trial was conducted.
After 12 weeks, the Graphalloy was considered a success and they converted the rest of the fixtures, installing an additional 400 Graphalloy cam followers. More than two years later, the original 12 Graphalloy cam followers are still in operation. This shows an improvement in life from eight weeks to over two years.
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