MOTORCYCLE INTAKE FLANGE

At Principal Manufacturing Corporation, we have a long track record of helping customers solve their most challenging design and manufacturing problems. We maintain TS 16949 and ISO 14001 certifications, reflecting our commitment to finding creative, cost-effective, and high-quality solutions for our customers. In the project illustrated here, a client was having production problems with a motorcycle intake flange. We were contracted to investigate the source of their problem and search for a solution, employing our highly experienced staff and complete array of state-of-the-art equipment.
The motorcycle company was using a flange with powdered metal that was cracking. To attempt to solve the problem without disrupting production, they used an offline operation to test the flanges for breakage. They assembled the motorcycle engine with the flanges that didn’t break, but this still didn’t solve the problem; end-of-the-line engine tests still produced a substantial number of broken flanges, resulting in disassembly and rework. To solve this problem, we developed a prototype tool that enabled us to discover a better method for constructing the thin wall required.
The fineblanking process eliminated our customer’s breakage problem, making their offline operation and rework processes unnecessary. This not only resulted in the best quality flanges but also offered significant cost savings.