CASE STUDY - Hartzell Propeller Reduces Scrap and Improves Quality

VIMANA’s IoT Solutions for Smart Manufacturing:
Condition Monitoring.

Company Background

Hartzell Propeller Inc. is the global leader in advanced aircraft propellers and aircraft propeller manufacturing technology. With over 30 years of experience in the design and manufacturing of structural composite blades.

Challenge

Hartzell’s goal was to reduce the quality risk in heating and cooling processes and decrease high manufacturing costs and labor-intensive activities related to the composite blade manufacturing process.

Solution

Hartzell Propeller selected VIMANA’s industrial analytics to monitor and manage critical heating and cooling processes’ quality process conditions.

VIMANA’s IoT Connectivity provided data streaming from multiple sensors and process controllers, capturing data from three distinct environments: temperature and humidity-controlled rooms, freezers, and ovens.

VIMANA’s IoT Solution for condition monitoring and real-time process analytics provided:

  • Real-time dashboards monitor critical quality conditions displaying a visual representation of each room state and process parameter metrics. This real-time insight freed employees from monitoring these areas.
  • Historical data analysis provided insight into hidden trends and helped to identify why alarms occurred. These insights led to the implementation of new quality control measures and allowed Hartzell to see which efforts had the most impact.
  • A ubiquitous alerting system going beyond the plant’s current audio-based controller alarms for notification of quality spills. VIMANA generated predictive alerts when the chamber’s conditions exceeded the control limits. VIMANA’s email notifications improved the shop floor response time in addressing critical cases. Time-based alerts repeated until conditions returned to acceptable levels helping the engineers better understand the severity.

VIMANA’s Client Services team provided continuous support with an iterative approach to configure capabilities and add value. The VIMANA team held weekly meetings with Hartzell’s engineers to identify further opportunities for monitoring and improving quality control in the chambers and address process issues.

Business Outcomes

VIMANA’s Analytics and Condition Monitoring provided the real-time data that resulted in:

  • Improved quality control in the heating and cooling processes and ensured quality standards were consistently maintained.
  • $470,000 in cost avoidance from scrapped parts in a single incident.
  • Reduced labor and costs related to monitoring these processes.

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