SH Auto Parts In-House Tooling Design for Efficient Suspension Component Manufacturing

SH Auto Parts improves manufacturing efficiency of our range of aftermarket suspension components by using our in-house engineers and designers to create tooling for dies, jigs, CNC machine beds and robotic handling systems. In-house tooling design by the same engineering team that designs the auto components reduces lead times and maximizes quality control standards.

Efficient suspension component manufacturing with in-house tooling

The guiding principle of in-house tooling design for SH Auto Parts is to ensure that the same suspension component engineers who develop our range of aftermarket components and OEM parts participate fully in all stages of the design and manufacturing process. By employing the same engineering team for in-house tooling that we do for suspension component manufacturing we maximize our production efficiency through all stages from project conception to production manufacturing at scale.

• Integrated approach to forming, welding, machining & assembly processes
• Jigs, dies, CNC machine beds & other tooling guaranteed to match the design
• Easier to plan for and make iterative improvements
• Large library of existing tooling for historic and current suspension components
• Rapid development, prototyping and manufacturing with shorter lead times

In-house tooling for suspension component manufacturing & assembly

Suspension component manufacturing requires tooling for forming, welding, CNC machining & component assembly. In-house tooling design has many advantages for auto parts manufacturers, including reducing the lead time to manufacture new suspension components and the efficiencies created by having a design engineering team that both design auto parts and also design the tooling to manufacture them.

• Forming dies for high tensile steel suspension components
• Robotic welding fixtures & positioners for precision welding
• Workholding devices, jigs & fixtures for CNC machining
• Robotic ball joint assembly line

Forming dies for high tensile steel suspension components

SH Auto Parts uses high tensile steel to manufacture stamped, formed and welded suspension components that are stronger and lighter than standard steel equivalents. The strength, reliability and fatigue resistance of formed suspension components is highly dependent on the depth of profiles and radius of curves.

Designing our own forming dies is one way in which we ensure we make formed high tensile auto parts to higher quality standards than our competitors. We also maintain a comprehensive library of our forming dies for current and historic components, which is invaluable for aftermarket auto parts manufacturing, enabling us to offer an extensive catalog to our customers.

Robotic welding fixtures & positioners for precision welding

The quality of formed and welded components depends on the production engineering and processes used to manufacture them. This is why SH Auto Parts engineers design and manufacture the robotic welding fixtures and positioners that we use to ensure precision welding of our formed and stamped high tensile steel suspension components.

In-house tooling design for welding fixtures enables us to rapidly modify and update our tooling for new and improved formed and welded suspension components, making our production highly efficient, and reducing the lead times required for new products.

Workholding devices, jigs & fixtures for CNC machining

Every CNC machined suspension component starts with an accurately and securely positioned billet being locked in place in the CNC machine. A key element of our successful application of intelligent automation to our auto parts manufacturing is the in-house design and engineering of workholding devices, jigs and fixtures for our automated CNC machining lines.

In-house design and engineering of jigs and workholding devices enables us to rapidly modify and update our tooling for new products and ensures that our CNC machined suspension components are manufactured efficiently to achieve closely matching tolerances between each individual part we produce in any production run.

Robotic ball joint assembly line

The SH Auto Parts robotic ball joint assembly line fulfils a critical requirement for suspension component manufacturing by ensuring that every component has the same dimensional tolerances and performance characteristics of every other component of the same design. This is a fundamental requirement that underpins high quality auto parts manufacturing.

To reach the standards required for Tier 1 automotive manufacturing, and provide reassurance for aftermarket parts customers, replicability is essential. Ball joint assembly is typically one of the most difficult operations to replicate exactly when manually assembling suspension components. By using our own tooling and engineering expertise to build a robotic ball joint assembly line, we aim to achieve uniform results when assembling every ball joint that is integrated into an SH Auto Parts component.

SH Auto Parts in-house tooling design for suspension components

At SH Auto Parts you can expect only the best OEM and aftermarket suspension components manufactured to IATF 16949 certified standards. Our in-house tooling design makes a significant contribution to our abilities to manufacture more than 7 million auto parts every year, all built to the same exacting standards of high performance replicability.

Contact us to discover high quality suspension components that demonstrate the attention to detail and performance that results from our in-house tooling design and robotic manufacturing, overseen by our team of experienced, expert engineers and coordinated at our vertically integrated Smart Factory.