Automotive manufacturer

In January 2017, one of the UK’s largest automotive manufacturers were looking to increase their production line capacity. The main challenge was to deal with high loads of up to 2 tonnes whilst coping with lateral forces when used on line-side production systems. Their previous suppliers of castors and wheels had experienced multiple failures of wheels due to de-laminated treads and failed bearings as a result of this demanding application.

Down-time, however minimal, results in lost production costs, amounting to many thousands of pounds and this could not be allowed to continue.

As a result of our experience and success with other projects of this nature we were commissioned as project partner. After the initial site visit to evaluate the current wheel systems, the project was defined and the solution was agreed by both parties. This included detailed CAD drawings. We then proceeded to manufacture a mix of slave, drive and guide wheels using a special Vulkollan polyurethane tread. By nature, this product has a high tear resistance and has not been known to de-laminate. The drive wheels were machined to precise H7 tolerance and the slave and guide wheels were fitted with deep SKF ball bearings. All in all, best-in-class materials and machining was used to generate a long-term solution.

We normally supply Vulkollan wheels for demanding applications such as rollercoasters, passenger lifts and so on, so we brought this technology to the production line of an automotive plant to good effect.

From contractual agreement to completion, the project was undertaken and completed in less than 10 weeks. This benefitted our clients immensely.

All expectations by our clients were met and has resulted in improved productivity, minimised downtime and ROI has been achieved in short time. As a direct result of this, subsequent orders have been secured to change over all production lines to the new wheels as part of an upgrade programme.