Power Partners, Inc De-mold Pokayoke

© 2015 Power Partners, Inc  T:  Process Overview Power Partners in Athens, GA makes transformers Transformers utilize coils of conductor that are wound around aluminum molds After the coils are wound, the molds must be pressed out to make room to insert the cores Molds Cores go here after tooling is removed

© 2015 Power Partners, Inc  T:  Process Overview (continued) To remove the tooling, coils are slid onto this arbor Parts of the arbor expand to clamp the coil in place Rods extend out just above and below the arbor to press tooling out

© 2015 Power Partners, Inc  T:  Before State After the top and bottom tooling is removed, the coil drops and rests on top of the arbor until removed On occasion, an operator would become distracted and start the machine before removing the coil This would cause the rod to drive into the coil ruining it

© 2015 Power Partners, Inc  T:  Pokayoke Idea A raised “rail” was added to the center of the arbor on each side The mold plates had a groove cut to match the rail in the Arbor With the new design, the coil now suspends itself after the top/bottom material was removed

© 2015 Power Partners, Inc  T:  Pokayoke Effect Now, if the machine is accidentally cycled again the rods simply glide past the coils where the molds were previously This makes it impossible to damage the coil by striking it with the rods All work was done in house by our Maintenance Team and one of our Process Engineers