The DualVee Snowman says, "Happy Holidays!"

Wishing everyone happy holidays and a fabulous new year! We look forward to your continuing business.

We will be closed from December 24th to the 31st, and will return to the office on January 3, 2011.

See you next year!

Our December newsletter hit the digital news stand this morning, so check it out! View [ here ]

Medical Industry: Custom Five-Wheel Carriage Increases Load Capacity

UtiliTrak® linear guides delivers stability and smooth operation while providing “easy-to-guide” vertical motion for this manufacturer of medical carts. Just one of the many ways these linear slides can be utilized in the medical industry — check it out!

CHALLENGE: A contract manufacturer of custom, high-value carts, consoles, tables and assemblies for medical and electronic OEM’s, required a vertically mounted linear guide system to easily raise and lower a support shelf on a cart designed for a portable ultrasound device. It needed to be cost efficient and provide smooth operation and stability when the cart was in the fully-raised position.

APPLICATION DESCRIPTION: The adjustable top shelf of the cart supports a 45 lb. ultrasound device. The cart uses a pair of gas springs as the actuators, which are connected to the top shelf casting to counterbalance the weight of the ultrasound device. When the device is on the shelf, its weight is neutralized, allowing the top to be easily raised and lowered.

SOLUTION: A custom 5-wheel carriage and a hardened steel raceway UtiliTrak mounted to each side of the cart was chosen to provide guidance and extra stability for this application. The custom carriage features five inline 52100 carbon steel DualVee® guide wheels, offset from each other, providing a longer bearing contact surface and an increased load capacity. Acheiving precise parallelism to eliminate binding of two mounting surfaces can be difficult and expensive. UtiliTrak solves that problem by compensating for slightly out of parallel mounting surfaces and still proivdes smooth travel. According to MPE’s Vice President, Dave Barta, the bearings and longer carriage minimized friction and binding and provided a smooth vertical operation.

**Get the hard copy of this customer application story on our website www.bwc.com

Enjoy Your Surroundings

A machine shop is visually striking when you stop to take the time to look around.

...clean lines, organization, tools, geometric shapes, raw materials, tool bits, packaging, crates... everything in its place, all surrounded by a buzz of activity...

Ideas are flowing, people are moving, machines are running and orders coming to fruition -- a toolmaker's playground.

Do you stop and look around your work environment?

Here's a few photographs I took while cruising the floor.

Manifold Assembly Made Safer, Easier and More Efficient

Challenge: A hydraulic manifold manufacturer, a supplier to first-tier automotive suppliers, sought to ease the process to manually assemble, test, and then box its hydraulic manifolds. Assembled manifolds weigh several hundred pounds, and the assembly process subjects the guidance system to a large amount of oil and some dirt and metal chips.

Application Description: A ring and track system is used to guide the manifold through the assembly process. Carriages are moved from station to station manually.

Solution: Given the large load and messy environment that the guidance system is subject to, guide wheel technology was the logical choice. It is impervious to any of the contaminants it might be subjected to, and the low friction makes it very easy for the operators to move the large weight from station to station.

[ DOWNLOAD ] the PDF of this application story  [ READ MORE ] customer application stories