When it comes to making parts for vehicles, two things need to be emphasized—safety and speed. Proterial Cable America’s Automotive Division can meet both expectations with ease thanks to our advanced routing capabilities and top-of-the-line technology.
For the last few years, PCA’s Automotive Division has been using Industrial Path Solutions (IPS) to take a digital look at the brake hose we sell to our customers. The switch has made our process faster, more efficient, and easier for our customers.
“It’s a dynamic virtual tool that helps minimize timing, complexity and increase accuracy while improving quality,” says Romi Shah, VP of North American Engineering for PCA Automotive.
When PCA’s Automotive Division starts the routing process to make a brake hose for an original equipment manufacturer (OE), they need to consider which specific vehicle model they’re making it for, how long the hose needs to be and how it will accommodate the car’s axle and wheel movements while in motion.
IPS is a digital system that allows our engineers to see a computer-generated image of the vehicle, in any and all of it’s models. They can then digitally add the PCA brake hose at different lengths to find out how long it needs to be. They can also move the vehicle’s tires at different angles to test the wear and tear forced on the hose.
“IPS can show us all the dimensions and clearances we would need and we can see graphs that show if we meet all the requirements we need to meet,” says Greg Price, Design Engineer for PCA Automotive.
The process for designing and routing a brake hose with IPS is fast and efficient, often taking about a day. But this wasn’t always the case, and for PCA Automotive’s competitors that don’t use IPS, it still isn’t.
“We’re miles ahead of where we would have been 4 years ago,” Tom Castaldi, PCA Automotive Applications Engineer says talking about before PCA used IPS.
Because brake hoses are designed for cars that aren’t in production yet, it can often take a long time for us to be able to test our actual component on the physical vehicle. So, given the dimensions of the vehicle and understanding our own product, the best hope is to do the math and get together an educated guess. However, because IPS allows us to see all the potential movements a car or truck might go through, there is a decided advantage to using IPS—even if that guess works out perfectly.
Shah says this tool allows us to have closer collaboration with the OEM, where many other suppliers / competitors struggle.
“Everyone has different tools. A lot of companies are moving quickly on this, from a competitive standpoint. A lot of suppliers assume this kind of responsibility falls on the OEM [who we supply]. The advantage we have over competitors is that we collaborate with the OEM instead of just letting them handle it all,” Shah says.
The brake hose is a pathway for the brake fluid to follow from the master cylinder to the calipers.
Basically, when you step on the brake pedal, it applies pressure to the calipers and brake pads. The brake hose serves as a mechanism to ensure the pressure makes it to the pedal.
PCA’s Automotive Division offers the chance for a variety of custom-fitting brake hoses. We can accommodate whatever the fit our customers need.
Castaldi says using IPS makes sure no matter what the customer wants, PCA can generate good results with IPS.
“It’s a tool to use with the customer. They give us the background, and we can put in a good solution,” he says.
Although PCA Automotive has a clear edge on the design aspects of brake hose manufacturing, the advantage doesn’t end there. Throughout vehicle routing and production, car manufacturers coordinate with many different parts suppliers and needs to relay back and forth to make sure everything fits together in a way that is safe and secure.
“If you buy a vehicle, it might have 10-12 variations. But in some instances, you may have a different design, or might have different tires,” Shah says. “You don’t need unique parts for every variation. IPS allows us to reduce complexity, or to improve on it when we need to.”
Although PCA may have an initial design that fits the vehicle, sometimes a company will come back and say they need changes based on the needs of one of the other parts. PCA is able to seamlessly alter the design thanks to the IPS system, getting a new design to the company quickly.
“We use it early to get a design, then as changes come in, we can go back and evaluate as needed,” Price says.
Our talented team of engineers can get your company the brake hose you need for your vehicle quickly, efficiently and you can rest assured the part will be safe.
Contact us today and let our skilled team use our state-of-the-art technology to get you the product you need.
