SPINNIN’ WHEELS — Coe Press Equipment Key To Kawasaki ATV JIT Wheel Production

Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corporation, USA (Lincoln, NE) has developed a new spin on wheel production to become the largest supplier for the ATV industry. Not only are they producing wheels for their own vehicles, but also for other manufacturers as well. In addition to ATV wheels, they also produce rims for utility vehicles and the lawn and garden industry.

Originally, material vendors supplied pre-cut blanks for wheel rims. Now blank production has moved in-house to reduce costs and control just-in-time (JIT) production. To do this, the company came up with a unique technology and developed a press line with robust stamping equipment (including a servo feed/power straightener/coil reel system from Coe Press Equipment) that gave them needed flexibility for production.

Kawasaki’s Lincoln facility manufacturers ATVs, jet skis, motorcycles, utility vehicles, robots, light rail cars, and wheel rims for ATVs and utility vehicles. They do mixed-model production with different units on the same line produced at the same time, so flexible equipment is a must.

“A lot of manufacturers do batch production where they’ll run a large batch of a single ATV model, and then change over and run a batch of another model,” said Kent Grothe, engineering supervisor. “We find that to be inefficient. By running different models down the same assembly line in small quantities, we can level our schedule throughout the year and stabilize our manpower requirements so we aren’t caught in the cycle of hiring and laying people off.”

This year the company is projected to do over 140,000 vehicles and roughly 1.6 million wheels. “To make our wheels we use a different process,” said Grothe. “We actually spin form them instead of roll forming, which is a process that automotive companies use. Spin forming allows us to stay true to KPS principles (KPS is Kawasaki’s improved version of JIT manufacturing). If necessary, we can run as few as 500 wheels on a single setup, which is unheard of for a roll-forming line. They have to setup for several thousand to be efficient.”

Kawasaki started wheel production in the mid 1980s. They were buying wheels through vendors, and decided to make them in house. Through research they came across the metal-spinning process. “It’s a good JIT fabrication process for us,” said Grothe. “We work with one company who custom makes the spinning machines for us.” At first they were producing about sixty wheels a day. Then the production grew and they realized they could turn it into a business.

That’s how we got into selling to other manufacturers, and now we’ve grown,” added Grothe. “We have eight wheel lines that are basically identical in function. Eight different wheel models can be run at the same time along with short-run batches and JIT production. At one time we sourced many of the wheel-center disks to vendors as well. Over time we added more stamping capabilities and brought them in house. Now we produce about 98% of our wheel-center disks internally.”

To do the wheel blanks in-house, a new stamping press line was developed consisting of an AP&T hydraulic press (choosing hydraulic versus mechanical for future process flexibility concerns) and a Coe Press Equipment (Sterling Heights, MI) system to handle and deliver the coiled steel, a cut-off shear and blank stacker.
Coe supplied AP&T with a ServoMaster Series 3 roll feed that can handle steel widths up to 24”; a 24” X 16” threading table to thread the coil into the press; a Model CPPS 350 24 power straightener (3.5” breaker rolls and 24” material width capacity) for coil straightening; and a 10,000# capacity traveling coil reel assembly and a stationary upender (moves the coil from a horizontal to vertical position for reel loading). Coe’s ServoMaster feed offers precision cluster-gear driven upper feed rolls, sealed precision-roller bearings, upper and lower feed rolls with #3 matte chrome finish, a four-roll catenary section for proper material support, and a motorized passline adjustment.

Coil steel is fed into the press and blanked by either a die or the hydraulic shear located at the end of the press with blanks moved by an automated stacker. The shear is used for rectangular shapes with dies producing other shapes such as round blanks.

Grothe said they had looked at some other producers for coil-handling equipment in the past and decided on Coe Press Equipment. AP&T had responsibility to develop the entire line. “We were pleased with what we saw with Coe for quality and functionality. So we went to AP&T and told them to use only Coe Press Equipment for coil handling.”

Grothe said the biggest thing this new stamping line has done for them is that the work in process inventory has been substantially reduced along with raw material costs.

“Before the AP&T/Coe line, we were buying all of our blanks outside,” Grothe said. “Every rectangular blank used to make the wheel tube was handled by three vendors - a steel mill to make the master coil, a service center to slit the master into smaller coils, and a processing center to cut the slit coils to length. With the new line we have replaced one of these vendors with an in-house process…and as you take any of the middlemen out of the process, you cut the material costs considerably.”

In addition to immediate material cost savings…“On this equipment, we expect a two-year payback,” added Grothe.

This stamping system has also given Kawasaki production flexibility. Instead of purchasing a different blank for each rim model, they use coiled steel with a width that matches three or four different rims. With this setup they can make the proper sized rim blanks as needed. “The coil isn’t stuck in one form, unusable for anything else. It let’s us cut our work-in-process inventory and gives us a much faster response time when production changes. You need to get your deliveries on time, even when the customer changes their mind at the last minute. (And when we talk customers, we mean up to eight different customers across a dozen total locations.) Being able to handle last minute schedule changes from our customers is one way in which Kawasaki distinguishes themselves in the wheel business. Ultimately, customers don’t care that they changed their mind, their only concern is that the product arrives at their door when they want it,” remarked Grothe.
Grothe said the company was originally looking at a different process than what they ended up with. It was still coil fed, but they were looking at a progressive-die type setup. An engineer working for Grothe, Tobin Watson, visited several manufacturers. Watson talked to them, and developed preliminary estimates. Grothe said they liked the way Coe ran their process, and the way their equipment is made. “The shop was organized and clean. They really had a handle on manufacturing. You look at Coe equipment and it’s beefy, heavy-duty stuff made to last,” he added.

Grothe remarked, “In the manufacturing environment, breakdowns kill you. So you look for the manufacturers that overbuild their equipment. You pay a little more up front, but you save down the road with uptime.”

Kawasaki’s lot sizes are in the 2,000-3,000 range. Typically the company doesn’t go under a 500-lot size because of excessive changeover. Wheel blanks vary from 7.5” to 12” wide and about 26” to 40” long. For steel wheels, the outside rim tube is made from 13, 14, or 16 ga. material and the center disks are made from 6 to 12 ga. material. Kawasaki also produces aluminum rims for ATV’s in painted and polished finishes. On an annual basis, they use roughly 16 million pounds of steel.

To produce a wheel after blanking, the steel blank is rolled into a circle and the two ends are flashbutt welded. Then the rim is spun in a CNC-controlled flow-forming operation to develop the basic shape of the wheel rim. A second spinning operation forms the rim’s bead hump, bead seat, and the outer curl. Then an automated MIG-welding system attaches the stamped center disk to the rim. After a leak check and visual inspection, the wheel is ready for painting and shipping.

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