Metal Parts Inc.

COMPANY/LOCATION: Metal Parts Inc., Jacksboro, Tennessee

PRODUCT: Metal stamping company

YEARS IN BUSINESS: 6 years at its current location

EMPLOYEES: 15

SITUATION:

Metal Parts is producing a spider base, the five-pronged base, that attaches to an upright shaft of an office chair. Each prong of the base houses a caster on which the chair rolls. The casters are brazed into the end of each prong on the base. After having a machine built to produce the part, however, the company found that parts did not pass stringent structural tests. The president of the company had attended a seminar on technology transfer and technical assistance programs and called the Tennessee Valley Authority's Office of Planning and Development Services, and was referred to the technical experts at the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology.

PROJECT:

Two engineers from ORCMT went to Metal Parts to look at the problem. After examining both the parts and the production process and working with Metal Parts engineering staff, they developed a process to braze the caster socket to the chair leg so that it passed or exceeded structural test requirements. Since that time, the company has manufactured 200,000 of the chair bases without a structural failure.

RESULTS:

The company has been very satisfied with the results of the technical assistance received from ORCMT. Solving the brazing problem allowed the company to retain four to six jobs that might otherwise have been lost because it allowed company to fulfill its contract which represented a "six figure sales increase for us," company president Mike Krummen said.

Krummen said the response to the request for technical assistance was "very good" and the project went smoothly. "The program did what it was supposed to do it solved our manufacturing problem."

PARTNERS: