One of the world’s premier suppliers of clutch housings and transmission components to the automotive industry, FCC (Indiana) Mfg., LCC, is well attuned to the pressures of being a world-class, responsive production supplier to automakers.

      A subsidiary of the worldwide FCC Co. Ltd. (producers of automatic and manual transmission clutch housings, torque converter components, CVT starting clutches, and 4WD clutches), the firm and its parent company are continually investigating and implementing improvements to their operations and processes. This is an attempt to optimize just-in-time delivery schedules with extensive R&D programs for materials and design, to enhance part and component quality, and to advance ergonomic issues and efficiency throughout the enterprise.

      Such was the case recently when FCC (Indiana) began a review of its manufacturing process for clutch plates at its Portland, Ind. facility.   The particular plates in question are first stamped from a mild steel plate, then deburred to knock down the sharp edges, and finally sanded on both sides through a complex system resembling a large belt sander.  According to Gabe Dann, a senior staff engineer at FCC, the sanding process accomplishes three basic steps in the clutch plates’ manufacture.

      “First, we achieve the necessary plate thickness, held to a very tight tolerance,” Dann says. “Second, the sanding results in the required surface finish for each side of the plates.  The third outcome is that the process produces large amounts of sanding sludge.  The sludge, a mixture of metal dust from the plates and grit from...

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