When it comes to providing customers with top quality work, Marlin Steel goes the extra mile. Over the years, Marlin Steel has invested heavily in factory automation for many different tasks.

Factory automation tools have made the Marlin Steel factory floor safer, as well as improved the consistency and quality of Marlin’s custom metal forms. However, there is an unsung hero of the manufacturing process: the Haeger insertion machine.

Inserting Specialized Tooling Quickly and Precisely

While CNC punches and lasers can cut holes into sheet metal, there is more to manufacturing a custom sheet metal form than just bending and cutting it into the right shape. Many small sheet metal forms need special studs and other inserts to fulfill their purpose. Marlin’s manufacturing team use machines such as the Haeger 618-Plus Hardware Insertion System to automate the process of inserting specialized tooling into sheet metal forms.

Examples of the types of tooling that can be inserted using one of these machines include:

  • Floating Nuts
  • High Torque Studs
  • Self-Clinching Nuts
  • Self-Clinching Flush Nuts
  • Self-Clinching Studs
  • Slide-Top Standoffs
  • Spring-Top Standoffs

The automation of the feeding process for these small, easy to mishandle parts speeds up the insertion process greatly, saving time and labor. Insertion of any given fastener can complete in a few seconds, rather than taking a full minute.

Innovative use of factory automation helps to power Marlin’s lean manufacturing practices, providing savings on both time and labor.

A Little about Marlin’s Machine

The insertion machine used by Marlin Steel is a Haeger 618 Plus with a Modular Autofeed System (MAS).

This particular machine performs insertions using a robust hydraulics system with adjustable force ranging from 400 lbs. to 1,200 lbs. The hydraulic system is extremely reliable, able to repeat the same level of force with each insertion within +/- 1% of the force set.

The MAS attachment automates the process of feeding fasteners into the machine by orienting, singling out, and feeding nuts, studs, and standoffs into the machine without having to change the autofeed bowl. At peak operation, a single MAS can feed up to 2,000 fasteners per hour for the insertion machine.

When the time comes to switch from nuts to bolts or studs, the entire process for changing out the parts to be inserted takes just three minutes. By making this process fast and efficient, down time on jobs requiring multiple types of inserts is kept to a minimum, speeding production along.

Fast, efficient, and reliable, Marlin’s Haeger insertion machine makes manufacturing sheet metal forms with integrated nuts, studs, and bolts quick and easy.

Find out how Marlin’s factory automation and fast domestic delivery can get you a custom metal form with Quality Engineered Quick®.

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Marlin Steel's Haeger Insertion Machine
Marlin Steel's Haeger Insertion Machine