Perei Group reduces turnaround with WorkNC

The manufacture of automotive lighting is increasingly complex as vehicle design is becoming more sophisticated. The Perei Group, which has a history of 60 years in vehicle lighting, specialises in the moulding and assembly of lamps for OEMs, including BMW and Jaguar, as well as Tier 1 suppliers and commercial vehicle builders. Its 5,100 m² Aldershot, UK site includes assembly facilities as well as 30 moulding machines and a toolroom. Additionally, the company has manufacturing sites in Hamilton New Zealand and Melbourne Australia.

<< WorkNC enables us to machine parts which were previously impossible to manufacture inhouse. The turnaround time for a new design of machine is now 40% quicker. >>
John Pickett, Toolmaker, Perei Group

Jo Yates, Toolroom Manager, explained the process at Perei, “We carry out development work for jigs and fixtures. During assembly the lamp clusters are 100% air and electrical tested to check that seam welding has been effective. This is important as the units must be water tight, and every LED and bulb must function correctly. Finally, if the lamp passes it is stamped to verify that testing has been carried out. We design and build the testing equipment in the toolroom, and as custom built units, unique for each lamp design, they require an iterative development process to produce a machine which is effective, reliable, as well as easy and safe to operate.”

Previously, parts for the testing machines were subcontracted. However, each lamp is different and has its own special requirements for air and electrical testing, making the designs both complex and rapidly changing. Utilising subcontractors to produce parts resulted in delays to the design and build of the machines, due to the additional time taken to communicate the new requirements, the lead times offered by the subcontractors, and errors through misunderstandings in the nature of the requirements. By investing in an XYZ VM3500 vertical machining centre and WorkNC for the toolroom, the company was able to move all this work back inhouse.

John Pickett, Toolmaker, said, “XYZ recommended WorkNC to us for programming complex 3D shapes. We evaluated several alternative CAM systems, but we found that WorkNC was the most user friendly and far better than the other systems we looked at”.

The lamp models are presented to Perei in ‘Car Line’. Initially its design department extracts the model data and passes it to the toolroom as an IGES file where it is read into WorkNC. John Pickett continued, “Because we have absolute confidence in the toolpaths created by WorkNC we can run the machine unmanned overnight. Many of the fixture shapes are complex. They have to fit the lamp topology exactly to enable the testing machine to work effectively.” The fixtures are made from Perplas, a soft self lubricating material, so feedrates are set to maximum. Dry runs are a thing of the past for Perei and by reusing proven machining routines and parameters the programming in WorkNC is virtually automatic, enabling the engineers to concentrate on the design and build of the testing machine.

John Pickett was enthusiastic about results, “We can now machine parts which were previously impossible to manufacture in-house. The ability to make all the parts ourselves has impacted positively on our control of the complete process.

Turnaround time for a new design of machine is now 40% quicker. We make up to 20 new machines each year and with each new lamp design, shapes are becoming more and more complex. The ability to shorten and accurately predict the delivery date of a new testing machine is of crucial importance to our company.”

In the automotive industry time to market is very important. The ability of the Perei Group to predict and meet the delivery and quality demands of its customers helps the company maintain its status as a key player in the automotive lighting industry.

The extra time now available in the toolroom has enabled the company not only to shorten delivery times, but also revisit the designs of existing testing machines and optimise them for speed and efficiency based on feedback from the operators. John Pickett concluded, “Both service and support from Sescoi has been excellent. WorkNC copes with our requirements very easily. Now that we have seen the benefits of bringing the machining in-house, we would like to evaluate the possibility of a larger machine tool and 5-axis machining. WorkNC will play an important role in our plans.”