The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is the leading global manufacturer and retailer of fully accessible, purpose-built London Taxis. The LEVC are universally acknowledged for creating the famous ‘Black Cab’, which is now an international icon.
The company’s next model is a range-extended electric vehicle, which is in production at their all-new purpose-built manufacturing facility based in Coventry in the UK. Over the past few months we have been working closely with The London Electric Vehicle Company to provide a complete bespoke solution for their Quality department.
LEVC were looking for an answer to help improve their tool torque testing capabilities and required a solution that would not only improve the accuracy of their results but also improve their current process as well as allow them to calibrate their cordless and DC assembly tools, provide calibration certificates and record and collect the tool data with ease. Their current process involved using a basic data collector and transducers in one area of the business, which then required manual input, and logging the results from the data.
Torque management experts Crane Electronics were called upon to help provide a solution which would improve their tool auditing process and speed up the process of data collection and traceability. Crane decided that the best solution for the LEVC would be a bespoke mobile tool station, customised with the torque measurement equipment needed for their applications. This would allow LEVC’s operators to move around the Production facility’s different assembly points, testing and calibrating their tools with ease.
Overall, Crane provided a solution including their MTTS (mobile tool torque station) trolley housing their TorqueStar data collector connected up to a series of joint kits, stationary transducers and the innovative CheckStar Multi rotary torque transducers. The whole solution was then driven by an easy-to-use touchscreen tablet PC and smart printer, which could display the individual tools’ results and print off a data label which is then added to the tool for traceability and operator satisfaction.
The new solution gave London Electric Vehicle Company a substantial improvement to their tool auditing process. The bespoke MTTS station allowed for greater traceability of tool calibrations and with the printed labels on all tools, greater visual identification and peace of mind that all assembly tools were delivering the required torque tightening levels and accurate construction performance.
The process was improved significantly with a reduction in the time taken to calibrate and certify their tools and the ability to move around the facility to the production points gave greater satisfaction to the Quality department employees.
John Jones, UK Sales Manager at Crane Electronics, commented:
“Being able to deliver a bespoke torque solution is something we take pride in at Crane Electronics. We were able to utilise all of our knowledge and our innovative product range in one simple and easy to use solution.
We are delighted that the customer has seen such improvements in their process and we look forward to being able to work with the London Electric Vehicle Company again in the near future.”
Mick Pearson, LEVC Engineer, responsible for calibration:
“Our challenge, going from a low to high volume vehicle manufacturer, required the use of high accuracy DC Tooling. That in turn required high-quality torque testing equipment and Crane Electronics was the most obvious choice.
The torque testing trolley we received provided an all-in-one mobile testing and calibration solution. The trolley incorporated various transducers all linked to a tablet PC, with OMS torque software installed. The support from John Jones (Crane Electronics) was quick and efficient.”
For more information about how we can provide a solution for your business, call us on +44 (0)1455 25 14 88, email us at sales@crane-electronics.com.