Vacuum Pressure Impregnation (VPI) is a method to insulate wound electro-mechanical parts thoroughly with a resin or varnish. VPI is a critical process to insulate and seal the porosity of the parts. VPI is essential to ensure that parts function correctly and improve the longevity of the equipment (Image 1). This blog is a guide that will explain the process, advantages and applications of VPI.
The increased use of turbochargers has become an important trend in car manufacturing. This trend has been driven by requirements to design smaller, more powerful engines that also reduce fuel consumption.
Modern vehicles contain hundreds of electric control units (ECUs). These control functions that range from operation of the engine to keyless entry. An ECU receives input from the vehicle then communicates with an actuator to perform a specific action. For example, a door lock ECU would activate an actuator to unlock or lock a door. OEMs and manufacturers are introducing more ECUs into vehicles to meet demands in features and performance.
As manufacturing equipment ages, the maintenance and repair (MRO) of the equipment increases while the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) decreases. Given this, companies must decide while bidding on new projects: “Use the aged equipment and invest in MRO while accepting a lower OEE” or “Invest in new equipment using the latest technology and generate a higher OEE.”
The benefits in owning and operating equipment vs. outsourcing are found in the savings of logistics, quality, and part costs. These savings serve to increase a company’s profitability. This reality holds true for vacuum impregnation equipment. But with many projects and programs competing for a limited amount of capital expenditure dollars, owning vacuum impregnation equipment can seem out of reach. Therefore, many companies default to outsourcing their vacuum impregnation requirements.
To meet global customers’ needs, automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) must develop international supply chains. And when an OEM seeks to create a sustainable and efficient supply chain in a new country — regardless of whether that country has an existing manufacturing base — it is inevitably going to face challenges.
Waste is any activity that consumes resources but brings no product value. Eliminating non-value, unnecessary waste is crucial for a company’s success. If not removed, waste can lower profitability, increase costs, decrease quality, and lower employee satisfaction.
An effective production flow involves work stations and equipment to be arranged in a sequence that supports a smooth flow of parts and materials with minimal delays. Implementing an efficient production flow leads to increased production and flexibility, as well as a reduction in capital requirements.
Anoplate, an industry leader in surface engineering, faced a production flow dilemma. The company offers vacuum impregnation services to seal leak paths and eliminate failure modes that could develop from outgassing, chemical compatibility, or bleed out of pretreatments in porous materials. Anoplate processes high value, complex die castings for some of the largest and most respected aerospace, defense, information technology, and recreation companies in the world. The castings often have thin walls with small blind taps.
The Challenge
Anoplate’s operations span across two buildings. Its headquarters comprises of its offices and vacuum impregnation operation. The second building, located across the street, houses its vapor degreasing and plating operations. Anoplate uses in-house batch impregnation systems to process the die castings. The batch system aggregates various parts and processes them in large batches. Before impregnation, parts are processed through vapor degreasing.
Despite being well versed in vacuum impregnation, the company could not efficiently process complex castings due to three limitations of their batch systems.
The SolutionThe company laid out its vision, and Godfrey & Wing responded with the lean, front-loading HVLV vacuum impregnation system, customized to address the company’s challenges.
To eliminate contamination, Godfrey & Wing designed custom fixtures to maximize the number of castings per cycle and protect critical machined features. The HVLV’s advanced wash cycle was programmed with an aggressive wash to flush sealant from blind holes and machine features.
After impregnation, the part is centrifuged to recover unused sealant. The sealant is returned to the sealant reservoir for use in subsequent cycles. The HVLV recovers unused sealant before the wash, which eliminates sealant drag out, and risk of contamination.
Recognizing the company’s desire to place the system in the same building as plating, Godfrey & Wing designed the HVLV to align with production. HVLV’s modular footprint requires 96 square feet without any floor changes. Godfrey & Wing also studied how the HVLV would integrate with Anoplate’s order of operations and concluded that with the HVLV, Anoplate’s vapor degreasing process could be eliminated.
While the system sounded perfect, Anoplate conducted rigorous sample testing before investing. Samples were processed at Godfrey & Wing’s headquarters on a machine identical to the HVLV proposed to Anoplate. The results demonstrated that the HVLV not only sealed the leak paths, but eliminated contamination, and reduced sealant usage. Also, the company was able to see firsthand how the modular footprint could easily fit into its existing production line. With these results, Anoplate purchased an HVLV.
The Results
The HVLV was installed, operators and maintenance were trained, and the system was processing parts in under two weeks. Since then, the HVLV is addressing Anoplate’s challenges.
“Considering our challenges, the HVLV has been a very effective solution delivering unrivaled quality for our advanced manufacturing environment.” Said Jesse Campbell, Anoplate’s Vice President of Engineering, “This system has also changed our perception of vacuum impregnation equipment in that it is simple to use, and the look is sleek and modern.”
In SummaryThe HVLV has created a competitive advantage to Anoplate’s vacuum impregnation services. The system has transformed its impregnation business by reducing costs, increasing quality and improving efficiency.
Productivity and quality are keys to the success of any continuous flow production philosophy. However, vacuum impregnation systems have remained antiquated, which causes production and quality issues in modern manufacturing environments. Hence their absence from most continuous flow production plans.Such is the case of a vertically integrated automotive OEM. This company had an outdated vacuum impregnation system that did not meet their continuous flow strategy. The division that operates the vacuum impregnation system pours the metal, machines, and assembles components to produce finished engines.
The Challenge
At the launch of a new engine block line, the company realized that its current vacuum impregnation system could not reliably process the new engine blocks. The OEM realized that the following challenges needed answered:
The Solution
The OEM’s leaders realized that the current vacuum impregnation system would need to be replaced with a modern impregnation system.
Based upon these roadblocks, Godfrey & Wing recommended its Continuous Flow Impregnation (CFi) system. The system would be customized to answer the customer’s challenges.
To improve the sealing rate, the CFi uses the patented Dry Vacuum and Pressure (DVP) process, which yields a higher seal rate than the DV process. The CFi with the DVP process incorporates a fast, deep vacuum to evacuate the air from the porosity. Then after moving sealant to the part, the system applies high pressure to allow the sealant to penetrate deep in the casting walls.
The OEM specified precisely where to place the system on the manufacturing floor. Knowing this, the Godfrey & Wing engineering team designed the layout to accommodate the floor space and production integration.
The system was designed with a 7-axis robot for parts handling, and conveyors integrated with machining and leak test operations. The robotic arm forms the interface between the impregnation system and the processing line while using the least amount of space. After impregnation, the castings are fed by the robot directly to leak testing via a cooling conveyor belt. The automation enables continuous production in a modular, compact space.
The internal components were positioned to enable ease of maintenance without interrupting production. The maintenance team is now able to service principal components through the rear panel doors, rather than accessing the system through the safety fence. Sanitary connectors are used that can be maintained by hand without the need for specialty tools. Each module has a line rate disconnect so that maintenance does not need to power down the entire system for service.
The Results
The CFi was installed, operators and maintenance were trained, and the system was running production in two months. Since then, the CFi is addressing all the company’s challenges.
In Summary
As OEMs search for ways to improve continuous flow manufacturing, it is necessary for a paradigm shift. This OEM found value in doing so by investing in a lean and modern vacuum impregnation system. The CFi plays an integral production role by increasing casting recovery while reducing maintenance
As manufacturing equipment ages, the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) decreases. A company that fails to invest in equipment, will not be able to meet demand or produce a quality product, thus potentially losing its competitive edge. Companies who want to succeed in this landscape are identifying equipment investment opportunities to keep production moving and while producing a quality product.
