Ajax CECO Erie Press
Assembly Line
Worldwide Demand for Forged Parts Spurs Drive to Rebuild Equipment
“Rebuilding is often the fastest, most economical means to get worn or mothballed equipment back into production when purchasing new equipment may not be feasible. As such, it can bridge a gap in production before new equipment can be purchased, manufactured and delivered,” said Justin Wildfire, Rebuild Engineer, Products and Part Sales, Ajax-CECO-Erie Press (ACE), an equipment supplier in North America, with over a century of experience in custom designing and building presses and forming machines.
Rebuilding is reconstructing a machine by removing all its parts and repairing or replacing them with OEM components to return them to manufacturer specifications. This can include replacing high-wear items such as bearings, bushings, seals and liners and inspecting and repairing the frame.
According to Wildfire, critical engineering design data is lost when an independent rebuilder reverse-engineers a part, resulting in inferior part construction and premature wear or component failure. “Often they are rebuilding a machine without truly understanding the original design intent or the loads that will be placed on the parts and equipment,” he said. Without the benefit of the original design specifications, there is the risk of a wrong or sub-optimal part being used in the rebuild. Given the loads placed on a forger, even minor material changes can significantly affect equipment longevity.