Modular fixturing brings benefits to John G. Wilson

“We were awarded a substantial package (of work) from a customer that

involved very low volume builds of parts but the (overall) scale of the

program was very large. We talked about what our best ideas would be

for fixturing and (one option we considered) was modular fixturing,”

says Tom Wilson, engineering manager with John G. Wilson. John G.

Wilson, which began operations in 1953, has approximately 90 employees

at its 105,000 sq. ft. facility. The company is a job shop that does

production machining and fabricating for a variety of customers in

various markets. For example, some of the products that the firm

manufactures include strapping dispensers for material handling

applications; components for plastic injection molding machines; parts

and components for lift trucks; and more.The firm provides an

extensive array of services including CNC machining, CNC turning, laser

processing, metal fabrication, production welding, and metal spinning.

In general, the firm’s part runs range from one-offs and prototypes up

to 1,000 pieces. On the fabricating side, John G. Wilson is typically

working with material thicknesses ranging from 22 ga up to 1 in. The

company’s sales are  split 60%-40% between domestic and export sales

respectively. According to Wilson, building dedicated fixturing

for the new program of work wasn’t feasible. “We could have built

dedicated fixtures but they would have cost thousands and thousands of

dollars. The program involved a dozen different families of parts and

it would have been very expensive.”As a result, the company began

evaluating various modular fixturing systems before selecting two

Demmeler D-28 modular fixturing systems from Bluco Corp., Aurora, IL

(bluco.com). “We had some familiarity with Bluco modular fixturing from

other local companies who were using their modular systems,” says

Wilson.The D-28 modular fixturing system tables that John G. Wilson

purchased are 1200 x 1200mm (4 ft. x 4 ft.) and feature 28mm (1 1/8

in.) bores on 100mm (4 in.) spacing. The fixturing systems are ideal

for heavier industrial grade weldments and offer over 125 standard

components. Tables can be joined together for larger parts.According

to Wilson, the Bluco modular fixturing systems have provided a variety

of benefits for the firm. “The Bluco systems were a good investment to

cover all the work that was involved with this program without having

to make dedicated fixturing.”However, building dedicated fixturing

for the  major product families was only part of the problem, points

out Reg Henry, CNC/tooling manager with John G. Wilson. “Not only would

we have had to make dedicated fixtures for each of the dozen product

families but because of the way these components were we would have had

to build fixturing to do sub-weldments to put into weldments. With the

Bluco systems we were able to combine everything into one weldment. The

Bluco systems have increased productivity.”Another benefit of using

the Bluco fixturing systems is that part design modifications can be

accommodated much more easily, adds Wilson. “We have probably revised

these parts three times since we started the program which would have

required retooling and modifying the fixtures each time. Using the

Bluco fixtures has meant huge savings in terms of accommodating design

changes. That has been a major benefit to us.”Henry also singles

out improvements in dimensional tolerancing that the Bluco modular

fixturing systems have provided John G. Wilson. “Every part that goes

onto the Bluco fixturing table comes out right. If the setup is right

and it has been qualified, it doesn’t matter which operator puts the

parts in the fixturng, they are always the same. Sometimes with fixture

building, one of your biggest problems is that each operator can load

the fixture a little differently and suddenly parts start shifting and

not every part is coming out the same. There is a big benefit in terms

of repeatability with the Bluco modular fixturing systems.”Since

installing the modular fixturing systems, John G. Wilson has also taken

advantage of Bluco’s in-house engineering and CAD support that it

offers to customers as an option. “Bluco offers support in the design

and layout of the system for a new job. For a small fee, Bluco will

layout the table and fixturing for a new job. The technical support

that Bluco offers in terms of helping to lay out the fixtures and lay

out the structure to make the parts has been fantastic. Such things as

on-line net meetings (have been critical) in allowing us to build the

structure for this project at a very low cost. This has been a huge

cost saving for us,” says Wilson.”Bluco’s engineering and CAD

support for the modular fixturing systems has also resulted in a 

reduction in lead times, he adds. “In some instances, it can take weeks

to build a dedicated fixture. Instead, I will have a program within a

week from Bluco including estimates for costs of tooling and I can

issue a purchase order and be up and running in days.”  Both Wilson

and Henry feel that the Demmeler modular fixturing systems are meeting

the company’s expectations in terms of performance.bluco.com