There is one common denominator in all companies that is always underestimated, and most of the time treated as a problem solver – the people that design, plan, build and deliver the product.
One of the companies I work with has a true genius among its ranks who can bring any concept to fruition. His inventions in the company are many, and include items such as a Portable Parts Temperature Stabilizer (PPTS).
This particular product solved a customer’s extremely tight dimensional tolerance problem that had plagued that customer’s product and machine shop for years. No other machine shop could hold the tolerance consistently. This was due to the reality that when materials are machined the process produces temperature changes in the metal caused by friction developed during feeds and speeds. When cutting or grinding the materials, the effect of the coolant used, and environment temperature always vary, causing part temperature changes. Additionally, each material has its own reluctance to expanding and contracting (Coefficients of Elasticity).
To give you some background, Coefficients of Linear Expansion takes place in every material from ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) thermoplastic to Zirconium, and each has its own thermal expansion coefficients factor. If you want to know the Mean Expansion Coefficient factors of some materials check out the chart at the end of this section. The bottom line is a part will expands as the temperature goes up and contracts as the temperature goes down. The coefficient of thermal expansion in mild steel is (0.0000078 in/in/deg F) between 32° and 212° F. it may not sound like much, but if the temperature change is 40 degrees difference between the final machined inspection and its required end use it could be the difference between fitting into a slot or not. The tolerance required could be a diameter of (1.0 in. +/- 0.0001 in.) and the coefficient expansion for 40 degrees could change the tolerance by 0.000312 in. thus it may not fit. Unless we were assured that the part was machined at the temperature (72° F) of installation. Therefore, we must make sure this particular part is machined to a dimension for installation at 72° F.
The Portable Parts Temperature Stabilizer (PPTS), created by this one employee, can be moved to the CNC Machine producing the part and will change the parts temperature to 72° F at the time of inspection to assure the parts dimension is right on target.
This employee is now recognized by the company as the problem solver and viewed as highly valuable. However, his genius can be utilized to do much much more if given greater challenges. Additionally, his skills can be marketed by the company to create a new line of business.
Have you seen the unseen geniuses in your company?
