IMTS 2008 to Feature Quality Day

CHICAGO-Tuesday, September 9 will be Quality Day at this year’s IMTS, to be held September 8 to 13, at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Quality Day, to be held in the IMTS Innovation Center (Booth D-4168), will present attendees with two presentations on how they can incorporate a comprehensive quality strategy into their manufacturing plan. Tools include:

• Leading-edge green technology
• Machine and process monitoring
• Tool management
• Advanced part measurement
• New verification, testing and manufacturing technologies

The first presentation, Astounding Results, will be held at 11 a.m. The Ford Van Dyke Transmission Plant introduced two new six-speed transmissions within 18 months of each other, ramping up to full capacity of 450,000 in less than half a year. At the same time, they achieved significant cost savings in both the process itself, as well as the cost per part. Attendees will learn about the strategies that helped make it happen:

• Minimum Quantity Lubrication. Parts are machined nearly dry-cutting metalworking fluid consumption from gallons per minute to milliliters per hour.
• Real-Time Thermal Compensation. Guarantees part quality during machining.
• Digital Holography. Measure millions of points in seconds vs. a few hundred in minutes.

The second presentation, Team Effort, will be held at 2 p.m. Alexandria Maciag, plant manager of Ford’s Van Dyke Transmission Plant, Sterling Heights, MI, will present the team’s story-how people and technology combined to create new processes and production lines. The Van Dyke plant has won:

• Two Henry Ford Technology Awards
• The Ford Presidency Award for Environmental Quality and Energy Savings
• The Society of Automotive Engineers’ E2T Award
• Quality Magazine’s 2008 Quality Plant of the Year Award

Attendance for this event is on a first-come, first-served basis. This session is free and open to any IMTS attendee, though seating is limited.

Video of the presentation and questions and answers will be available through the Innovation Center kiosk. For more information, visit www.imts.com.