Background
Bend-All Automotive manufactures precision bent tube and pipe components, such as fuel lines, cooling lines, and other fluid carrying parts, supplied to automotive manufacturers. Producing these components at automotive grade tolerances relies on CNC tube bending machinery, which operators control and monitor through touch screen interfaces on the plant floor.
IVC Displays has supplied the industrial touch screen computers used as operator panels on Bend-All's bending machines since 2010.
The Challenge
Automotive component manufacturing floors are demanding environments for computing hardware: heat, dust, metal shavings, and the vibration of heavy CNC machinery all take a toll on standard, commercial grade touch screens, which tend to degrade quickly or fail outright under those conditions.
At the same time, automotive supply chains run on tight, continuous production schedules. Unplanned downtime on a single bending machine can ripple through a plant's output and put on time delivery to automotive customers at risk. Bend-All needed an operator touch screen platform that was rugged enough to survive the shop floor and reliable enough to keep its bending machines running without interruption.
The Solution
IVC Displays supplied Bend-All with industrial grade touch screen computers purpose built for harsh factory floor conditions, serving as the operator interface on the company's CNC tube bending machines. Rather than a one time equipment purchase, the relationship has continued since 2010, with IVC refreshing the touch screen hardware as components have reached end of life, carrying Bend-All's machine operations forward across three generations of touch screen systems while keeping the machines running reliably on the production floor.
Results
- Reliable, continuous operation. Industrial touch screen computers built to withstand the heat, dust, and vibration of automotive component manufacturing.
- Durability through hardware transitions. The same machine operations have continued reliably across three generations of touch screen systems.
- A long term technical partnership. More than 15 years of hardware supply since 2010, keeping Bend-All's production floor equipped with dependable operator interfaces.
Looking Ahead
IVC Displays continues to serve as Bend-All Automotive's touch screen computing partner, supplying the industrial grade hardware that keeps operators connected to their bending machines reliably, shift after shift, on one of manufacturing's most demanding floors.
