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Vauxhall (IBC Vehicles) Case Study Print E-mail
Crane Mobile Tool Testing Station Means Minimum Production Line Disruption For Ibc Vehicles

November 2000
As the sister company to Vauxhall Motors, IBC Vehicles of Luton manufactures the Vauxhall Frontera range of recreational vehicles. Having previously produced the Midi van, the company currently builds the Frontera for the UK and European markets and in order to maintain the high quality standards necessary during assembly of its vehicles, IBC needs to ensure the power tools used on the production line are always giving the correct torque output at all times. To achieve this, the company relies upon Crane Electronics.

Over 90 DC power tools are used on the Frontera production line, and in order to ensure they are all regularly calibrated with the minimum of production line disruption, IBC makes use of a mobile tool testing station from Crane Electronics. This enables all tools to be tested at their place of utilisation, without the need to disconnect and remove them away from the production area.

By bringing together all the advantages of the Crane family of products, the mobile tool testing station offers a practical approach to mobile line-side tool testing. The versatility of the Torquestar, along with the accuracy and durability of the transducers are combined in one convenient package to provide good tool test data. The MTTS can be used for testing pneumatic and DC tools, as well as hand torque wrenches.

The mobile tool testing station, being a customised system based on standard Crane products, allows stationary transducers or Checkstars to be incorporated with joint kits to accommodate different sizes and types of drivers. Selection between transducers is achieved by a manual selector.

IBC Vehicles has had the MTTS in constant use since purchasing it from Crane some five years ago. Every DC power tool is tested on a four-weekly basis, one person carrying out all the calibration checks.

Prior to installing the DC power tooling, the company previously used air tools, but were seeking higher torque accuracy levels, as explained by Mr. Ray Shadbolt, General Assembly Maintenance Manager at IBC, “We used to have a lot of air tooling and a Norbar unit for calibrating the drivers. We changed to DC because we found it gave us a lot more control over the tools. By using the Crane mobile testing station we can check the torque a lot more accurately, without having to take any of the tools away from the line, so we don’t have any disruptions and we know the torque settings will be spot on.”