Ford Gets Double Value With Cyr-Built System

One of R.J. Cyr Co.’s more challenging jobs was a production skid that carries semi-assembled Aerostar and Explorer vans through Ford’s St. Louis, Missouri, plant.  Since the two vehicles are different in length, the skid has a bearing-mounted trunnion on the front, which turns 180°, allowing it to accommodate either vehicle.

Cyr worked as a subcontractor to Dearborn Fabricating for this program.  According to Jeff Homenik, Dearborn’s Director of Ford Sales, the production skid is part of a multi-million dollar Dearborn-designed system that includes load and unload stations, and conveyors that accept both vehicles.

“Ford built Aerostars and recently launched the Explorer,” Homenik explained.  “They’ll be making more and more of the new vehicles.  They want the quick changeover and production flexibility that our system delivers.  In the future, when they introduce new models, they’ll adapt the trunnion instead of buying a whole new set of skids.”

Cyr built 185 skids to Dearborn’s design.  The entire unit is about ten feet long and a bit less than four feet wide.  Three-quarter-inch-thick hot rolled steel plate was used to make the trunnions.

“To change from Aerostar to Explorer, a Ford worker simply flips the trunnion over and locks it in place with 1045 steel pins,” said Cyr’s Jim Philp.  “We machined the mechanism to tight tolerances, so the holes that accept the locking pins match exactly in either position.

“To improve their durability, we heat treated the trunnions to a higher Rockwell hardness,” he continued.  “The mainframes of the skids are 1045 steel, so they’ll withstand a lot of hard use.  We also did final assembly, setup and test.

“The first 20 skids were delivered just two weeks after Dearborn provided the drawings,” says Philp.  “The remaining 165 followed within 12 working days.

”The new system was installed without interrupting production.  “We worked alongside production, weekends – what-ever it took to complete the job on schedule,” said Dearborn’s Homenik.

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R.J. CYR CO., INC.
Windsor, Ontario Canada
www.rjcyr.com

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