Renewable energy is more on the agenda than ever before. The increase of electric cars, green energy, the reduction of fossil fuels and a possible energy crisis require new solutions for the way Europe shapes its energy generation. The demand for electricity, preferably generated green, is therefore rising enormously. But this increased demand also places demands on the networks that have been constructed for this purpose in Europe. And they are not ready for it yet! That’s why renewable energy providers are working hard on the infrastructure of the European energy network. One of our customers, for example, is working on setting up new and/or heavier transformer substations that will manage the increased energy demand. And that requires a lot of industrial hinges! It’s up to us to find a sustainable, time and cost-effective solution.
Expanding the production of transformer substations
One of our customers is a specialist in the production of power supply buildings, such as transformer substations and telecommunications stations. Due to increased power demand and the necessary expansion of the European power grid, the company is currently experiencing a huge expansion. After all, it needs to produce many more transformer substations! In order to connect the metal doors to the concrete shell of these stations, custom-made industrial hinges are required, which also need to last for decades. With such a large production run, however, the lead time and costs can quickly mount up! That’s why we helped the electrical engineering company to find the right solution for them: How can we design this in a time and cost efficient way?
Durable industrial hinges for transformer substations
In the production of hinges for transformer substations, in addition to precise workmanship, a long service life is particularly important, because these substations are laid out for at least 30 years. For this reason we developed a powerful 304 stainless steel hinge part with folding, which was delivered unassembled at the customer’s request. After a while, however, the client came back to us asking if there was any other way to go about it. The costs were rising quickly in this way: Could the parts be cheaper? That’s why we decided to take a closer look at the entire process together with the company to see whether there was a better solution.
Win-win solution with constructional changes
For example, what do they do with the hinge parts after they leave our job shop? A look at the production process showed us that an external party assembled the separate hinge parts and welded them into the construction. Our engineers soon realized that this could be done better. This extra step in the process not only increased the costs, but also the lead times were unnecessarily long.
Our engineers therefore proposed a change in the construction: thanks to a special pin, we could deliver the hinge assembled, ready-to-use. This would make a whole production step by an external party unnecessary and thus save enormously on costs and lead time. An all-round advantageous solution for both the customer and BOSCH hinges!
The result? A durable, high quality hinge, delivered quickly. Ready to use and perfectly suited to the long service life required at transformer substations.
