Past Events
Tennant Plant Tour
Date: Sept. 11, 2014
Time: 3:30 - 5:00pm
TENNANT COMPANY
701 N. Lilac Drive,
Minneapolis, MN 55422
Tennant Plant Tour Recap-
Innovative Plastics Design and Manufacturing Methods
The SPE- Upper Midwest Section sponsored a Factory Tour at the Tennant Company on September 11th, 2014. Of course, Tennant was a superb host and went far and above a basic factory tour, presenting on three interesting topics related to their innovation in developing, testing and manufacturing of their plastic components for their T12 and T17 battery powered rider floor scrubbers.
Peter Loring, Tennant Fabrication launch Engineer, started things off with a presentation on their use of 3D printing in non-traditional applications to speed up functional testing in concept stages of development. He described an innovative method of 3D printing thin walled, single use molds that are used to mold flexible urethane materials into complex squeegee designs. The one time use molds are designed with 3D printing in mind and can literally be torn away from the urethane to reveal functional parts that can be tested in days rather than weeks or months.
Koda Sanborn, Tennant Fabrication Manufacturing Engineer, was up next with a very interesting presentation around Tennant’s internal rotational molding capabilities that have been added in Golden Valley to support a larger operation in Holland, MI. Koda offered information about what was involved in the site preparation for the massive equipment, how the equipment was selected, as well as some unique ways in which Tennant utilizes technology to reduce the “black art” traditionally involved in Rotational molding.
The third and final presentation was given by Brett Scott, Tennant Project Engineer, Interim Program Manager, in cooperation with Mike Duppong and Ryan Eckholm from EPC Molding (http://www.epcmolding.com/ ). Brett offered a tremendous insight into what it takes to go through the process of selecting a manufacturing process and managing the design for manufacturability, internal and external expectations, materials, etc. Three of the key components for the “operator station” on the floor scrubbers were highlighted to illustrate the process of selecting the best manufacturing method. Using these three examples, Mike and Ryan covered the basics of “multi nozzle structural web” molding in comparison to traditional molding methods.
Finally, we were lucky enough to be given a tour of the manufacturing plant where each of these presentation topics is put into practice. The tour included stops at the impressive rotational molding cell along with a view of the assembly line for the T17 scrubbers (see photos).
We are extremely thankful to Tennant and all involved to allow for this event to happen. They were tremendous hosts and made this event valuable to those who attended. In order to continue these types of event we need your support and participation! Please plan on joining us for upcoming local SPE events including our upcoming MegaTech on November 11th.
Brett Scott, Mike Duppong, and Ryan Eckholm presenting on
“multi nozzle structural web” molding.
Tennant Tour of their new Rotational Molding Cell
Koda Sanborn explains technology to enhance capabilities and
control in the rotational molding process
Brett Scott demonstrates the critical example parts
from the presentation on the assembly floor
Golf Outing & Networking
Tuesday, August 5th, 2014
at Oak
Marsh Golf Course
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For more information, please contact Matt
Havekost
Past Events