When it comes to safety, most people would like to be protected by the best equipment available. Task Force Tips (Valparaiso, Ind.) takes this idea to heart in its manufacturing environment, as its attention to quality has helped make it a worldwide leader in providing firefighters with innovative agent delivery solutions. The company was established with the objective to provide reliable nozzles that can maintain consistent pressures for the most effi cient means of extinguishing fires. It carries this philosophy over to all aspects of its business
in an eff ort to incorporate state-of-the-art equipment and methods into its production process.
TFT was founded in 1971 in the family basement of Gary, Ind., fire chief Clyde McMillan. His initial idea for an automatic nozzle was only the beginning for a company that has since grown to employ 180 people within its current 168,000-square-foot headquarters. The company now offers a full line of nozzles and other firefighting equipment, including valves and water cannons, aimed at allowing the men and women involved in this dangerous line of work to do their jobs more eff ectively and safely. Its products are in use in more than 30 countries, in such cities as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Cincinnati, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and Moscow.
According to director of research Bob Steingass, the company’s tips (as the nozzles are called) operate diff erently because they are designed to make bett er use of how the water is dispersed. The company holds a number of patents on its designs, including 36 attributable to Steingass. “We shape the water in a different way,” he explains. “The spray pattern for applying the water has a big
impact on the eff ectiveness for putt ing out a fi re.” Other areas that the company continuously continuously focuses on improving are the durability and weight of the equipment.
Almost all of the company’s parts are made from aluminum, stainless steel or plastic. Various injection molding operations are done on the plant fl oor, but machining is the company’s real forte. It does both milling and turning operations with a lineup of machines that includes Mazak mills and turning centers and some Mori-Seiki NT4250 DCG multitasking machines. The company is always looking for ways to consolidate operations, as demonstrated in the functionality that the NT brings in completing a part using a single setup.
Deburring operations, though, have posed a long-standing challenge to TFT’s process effi ciency. So the company is facing this challenge head-on by applying innovative strategies to its manufacturing process. A number of parts are still deburred by hand, but on a lot of jobs, a deburring operation is added to the
machining process. “Th at’s the ideal situation, but it requires the right part on the right machine,” Steingass says.
Deburring operations have led to another innovation at TFT. Th e company has two vibratory fi nishers (with capacities of 5 and 20 cubic feet) that use ceramic media to fi nish aluminum parts. Previously, the process wastewater from the sett ling tanks on the fi nishers drained into a series of three additional sett ling
tanks. As solids collected in the sett ling tanks, they had to be periodically emptied, which was an undesirable, time-consuming maintenance task. Steingass says, “Even with three sett ling chambers, the resulting waste water was not clean enough to meet disposal standards, and the smell was not pleasant.
“At IMTS (the International Manufacturing Technology Show) in 2008, we spott ed a centrifuge that we felt could really help our process,” Steingass continues. “We actually looked at six diff erent ways of cleaning the water, but all of the others required stopping the process at regular intervals, disassembling
the machine to clean out the sludge, and then reassembling to start up again. With this one, we just put a trash container underneath, and a mechanism inside the centrifuge scrapes the sludge for you and drops it in as pieces of clay-like material.”
To simplify cleanup and disposal of contaminated fl uids and sludge from finishing operations, the company decided to bring in the new, patent-pending dry solids centrifuge (DSC) from Advanced Products Laboratories (APL), manufactured and supplied under license by Almco Inc. Th e new system recycles the water back to the vibratory fi nishers for reuse. It collects and discharges waste as near-dry, fl aky solids that allow the company to meet environmental disposal requirements, and it is saving about $10,000 per year in disposal costs.
The DSC uses a unique low-energy particle separation means and a low-force solids discharge mechanism. During the clarifying mode, a 2-hp motor drives the centrifuge at a speed of 3,600 rpm, generating separation forces over 1,600 G. Th e centrifuge provides the equivalent separation capabilities of 1,800 square feet of sett ling area, with the capability of removing particles down to 2 micron at fl ows of 8 gpm.
Discharge of the solids follows an adjustable, timed cycle that can be optimized according to the requirements of the application. During the discharge cycle, the fl ow is shut off so fl uids can drain from the collected solids. Th e dryness of the solids can be increased by adjusting the fl uid draining period up to several seconds. When the rotating assembly comes to a stop, a low-force solids removal mechanism activates for several seconds to discharge the near-dry solids. Th e centrifuge and fl uid fl ow are then restarted. Th e entire discharge process takes less than a minute, minimizing the interruption of fl ow.
Installation of the DSC is representative of the types of steps TFT takes to improve its manufacturing processes, and this continued implementation of more effi cient methods will keep the company on the leading edge. PC
