Worksite Improvement Case Studies

The customer had been using a suction hose to transport resin pellets to a molding machine hopper. However, after less than a year of use, deterioration due to wear caused holes to appear in the hose, from which debris entered, contaminating products with foreign matter and leading to defects.

A competitor’s PVC hose was in use for cutting fluid circulation piping in machine tools at an automotive parts plant. However, oil caused the hose to harden, making it bend or collapse, leading to coolant liquid clogging which prevented cooling and caused production losses. Therefore, the hose had to be replaced every six months, at extremely poor efficiency, so it was desirable to reduce the hose replacement frequency.

The customer was using a tube with a cap nut pipe thread coupling for piping carrying recirculated cooling water around a dust cover injection molding machine. However, the tube would become unpressurized when the machine stopped, causing it to collapse. Water would then leak from between the tube and coupling when the tube was once again pressurized after starting the machine. Production would stop, resulting in issues interfering with work, such as production loss and the need to perform troubleshooting.

The customer had been using a suction hose to transport plastic pellets for parts at an automotive parts plant. However, the temperature would rise to around 80°C during use, even though the hose had a heat resistance of only 50 to 60°C. The customer was suspicious of the ability of the hose to resist that much heat. This actually had caused the hose to degrade rapidly, and it often had to be replaced, reducing efficiency. Something had to be done.

The customer was using a tube clamped with a competitor’s coupling for piping carrying recirculated water for cooling, connected to a metal temperature controller. The coolant traveling through the piping had a pressure of 0.6 Mpa, but the tube became disconnected from the coupling, causing flooding in the plant. Production had to be stopped, while subsequent cleanup and drying took some time to complete, resulting in production loss.

In addition to the plant facility air piping, we used the SUPER TOYORON Hose for drainage of cutting fluid or grinding fluid mist that tends to get scattered around inside the plant, but hardening due to oil occurred quite rapidly, so replacement was necessary once every two years, and this work was quite tough, necessitating replacement in many locations and occupying up to an entire day

A hose crimping product was used for the coolant liquid transfer pipe used at a building material manufacturing factory due to leakage and disconnection concerns. The coupling cannot be reused when replacing the hoses, which is wasteful and also requires a spare stock of crimping parts, resulting in a cost burden problem.

A company rerouted metal pipes carrying air to the ceiling, and from there, hoses took the air to machining equipment, so that the layout could be changed. Regular maintenance to tighten the fitting clamp was not possible next to the ceiling. Leaks kept showing up in different places and then the hose in the ceiling came off altogether.

In a paint booth for plastic car bumpers, static electricity generated in the drying process would cause dust to stick to the bumper before the painting. To prevent this, they built a water tank to add moisture. The hoses used to circulate water for the tank were installed at two different levels of the tank. The company was concerned about leaks occurring at the clamp and nipple some years later as time passed.

The PVC hose used in the mobile parts of cutting machines can harden, bend, or collapse due to coolant oil. If the coolant oil gets clogged, this can prevent cooling and become a cause for production loss. In addition, because replacement is necessary every half-year, we searched for an oil-resistant hose