Ohio Broach custom-designed machine makes bearings for European firm

A producer of engine crankshaft thrust bearings benefited from Ohio Broach's skills.

Broaching suits a wide range of industrial applications, and the Ohio Broach and Machine Company has seen them all over its 60-plus years of business. One of the company’s unique success stories involved a bearing manufacturer in Europe, which approached the company several years ago for a customized broaching machine to produce engine crankshaft thrust bearings for the automotive sector. With its unmatched range of skills, Ohio Broach was up to the challenge.

Two tons of cutting force

To manufacture these bearings, this European firm used a process that included stamping parts from presses near a broaching machine and then loading them into a double-station magazine that carried about 20 minutes’ worth of parts in the machine. The machine would strip the bottom part of each magazine from the full part stack and push the parts through two broach tunnels, where broach tools would remove stock and hold parts flat while keeping a surface finish of a maximum of 1.2 Ra.

In the next step, the parts exited the tunnels into an unloading area and travelled down chutes to a collection area. The fixtures returned to the original station, and the cycle restarted. The cycle would continue until the magazines were low, the parts fed into the broach tools incorrectly, or nobody was removing the parts from the chute’s exit area.

Ohio Broach tackled this application by constructing a specialized “Ohio” H218X horizontal machine. This was a customized broaching machine with two tons of cutting force, 18 inches of cutting stroke, and tandem stations. The equipment was hydraulically driven, with a dual parallel hydraulic system in which one side could run separately from the other. Its integral coolant pump and reservoir supplied coolant to the broach cutters.

This customized broaching machine was controlled by a PLC and could broach up to 1,400 parts per hour. It could even handle up to 40,000 parts between sharpening tasks, depending on the size and material. It was the perfect solution for the manufacturer, improving its competitiveness and efficiency. Trust Ohio Broach for a custom solution for any application.

For more information, contact Ohio Broach.

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