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Ford's New Tool Process Slashes Cost, Development

25 September 2000

Ford's New Tool Process Slashes Cost, Development

    DEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 25 Ford Motor Company and
Praxair Surface Technologies, Inc. have finalized a deal giving Praxair
worldwide licensing rights for a parts making process that cuts tool and die
development time in half and associated costs by more than 25 percent.
    Developed by Ford's Scientific Research Lab, the rapid tooling process,
called Sprayform Tooling, creates stamping dies by spraying molten steel over
ceramic molds.
    "Using the traditional method, creating manufacturing tools and dies are
among the most expensive and time consuming elements of a new vehicle
program," said Dr. Charles Wu, director of Ford Manufacturing Systems and
Vehicle Design Research Laboratory.  "The spray-formed tooling process will
shave millions of dollars and several months off the production process."
    "The thermal spray technology at the heart of this process is based on
what we do every day in our plants around the world," said Frank Ridding,
president of Praxair Surface Technologies, Inc.  "The agreements provide a
great opportunity for us to help Ford and other users of stamping dies to
significantly reduce their production time and cut costs.  Our development
team will continue to work with Ford's R & D organization to further develop
this breakthrough technology."
    This spray-formed rapid-tooling process reduces the number of steps to
create a typical steel tool from about 12 steps and as long as 25 weeks time
for the traditional method to five steps and less than four weeks.  Ford Motor
Company has been able to produce tools in as little as one week.