Case Study: Building Custom Metal Forming Equipment for Automotive Sun Visor Assemblies

The sun visor in an automobile is a safety-critical component because if the visor breaks while a vehicle is in motion, it could hit the driver or passengers in the face, causing distraction or injury that could lead to a collision. If it fails during a collision, it could cause further injury to the people in the vehicle as well. It’s critical that sun visor assembly parts meet specifications every time.

The Challenge: Out-of-Tolerance Parts and Supplier Friction

Our customer was relying on another supplier to provide us with the formed metal arms for sun visor assemblies that were being overmolded in our facility. The supplier suddenly began driving up the cost of the parts and, at the same time, were sending us parts that were out of tolerance. 

Our engineering team began to think: what if we could form our own metal arms in house? We decided to build our own metal forming equipment from scratch. 

The Solution: Building Custom Metal Forming Equipment In-House

While building the equipment to perform the bending to form the metal tubing into shape and tap the requisite holes, we also set our minds to the quality assurance process. One of the challenges of this application was that there could be no burrs present on the inside of the metal tubing where the holes were tapped because the electronic wiring for the vanity light needed to be run through it. If burring was present, it could potentially cause the wires to fray, which would make the light stop working.

Our quality team implemented a vision system along with physical and mechanical sensors to ensure the inside of the formed metal tubes were free of burring.

The Result: Better Quality, Shorter Lead Times, One Less Supplier

Today, we’re still producing these parts in our facility. Bringing the metal forming operation in-house on our customized equipment also helped our customer because not only are they now receiving better quality parts, but they were also able to reduce a link in their supply chain, which has shortened lead times and simplified their process.

If you’re facing a complex manufacturing project or experiencing issues with your current contract supplier, get in touch with one of our experts today to re-engineer your results!