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HYUNDAY MOBIS INCREASES QUALITY WHILE CUTTING FIXTURING COSTS WITH A FACTOR OF 3 USING MAGICS RAPIDFIT
For the past few months, Hyundai Mobis' AUTO-TECH Division R&D Department has used the RapidFit system to verify that each car component or assembly meets all accuracy requirements. The department is very satisfied with the benefits it reaps from this innovative technology for advanced quality control. Mr. Tae-Sun Byun, R&D Manager of the AUTO-TECH Division R&D Dept.: 'To be competitive nowadays, our company needs to deliver better parts in ever-shortening lead times, while maintaining the highest quality standards. This implies the need for fast, advanced inspection technology for quality control. We experienced some problems with our old inspection system, so we looked for a new system that could shorten the fixture manufacturing time, reduce the manufacturing cost, minimize the storage space needed and simplify the final fixture disposal. And we found all that in the Magics RapidFit solution!' At Hyundai Mobis, they first use Magics RapidFit software to create fixtures automatically. If necessary, the fixture design is edited with Magics RP software. Then the fixtures are built on an RP machine. Mr. Kyoung-Deog Lee, assistant R&D Manager: 'The Magics RapidFit software is easy to use and learn. It only takes one day of training to master the software. I particularly appreciate the speed, flexibility and accuracy of the fixture design. It's amazing how quickly the software generates the complex negative grooves that fit exactly to the part. The customisable report documents are very handy, too. Combined with the indication of assembly position on each fixture and the quick lock system, they provide a very easy set-up of the system.' Depending on the height of the fixtures, either a normal fixture or an Alufix beam with a 'cap' fixture is used. When the fixture needs to be rather high, combining short RapidFit fixtures with Alufix beams saves both time and money. Next, the fixtures are connected to the base plate, which takes a maximum of 30 minutes per complete set-up. Finally the part is placed on the fixtures, ready to be inspected with the CMM system. Based on their recent experience with Magics RapidFit, Mr. Byun and Mr. Lee expect to enhance the efficiency of their department significantly. Where a project with the former inspection system used to take 2 weeks with a price tag of $8,500 U.S, inspection with RapidFit takes them between only 2 and 5 days and can reduce the cost to as little as $1,500 U.S. Altogether, Hyundai Mobis foresees an annual cost saving up to $180,000 U.S. and a time gain of 117 days / year. In the future, Hyundai Mobis aims to continue to enhance its productivity. The company's purchase of Magics Tooling Expert and Magics Communicator Master software will enable in-depth analysis and cost estimation for prototypes and tools, and save travel time to design meetings, etc. Materialise is pleased to assist Hyundai Mobis further in realising this objective. Wim Michiels, Business Development Manager at Materialise: 'From the very first contact between Materialise, K-Tech (a Korean distributor for Materialise) and Hyundai Mobis, the cooperation has been very smooth and constructive. We received some very interesting feedback on our RapidFit system and had stimulating discussions on the future evolution of RapidFit. I'm looking forward to further collaboration with this leading Korean company.'
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