While the Chervon Green Factory openedย inย July 2015 and hasย over 3 million square feetย of production space, its original factory was where we started our tour. This is aย 2.2 million-square-foot facility that was constructed in 2006.ย The Chervon factory tour was led by Mr. Ke Zuqian (GM of Chervon, pronouncedย โMr. Kayโ),ย whoย currently runs the factories. After our Chervon Research and Development tour, this was the next logical stop.
As a company, Chervonย is focused on vertical integration, spanning fromย research and development to manufacturing, final assembly, and quality control. In fact, Chervonย is investing a lot in all of these areas. The key parts of manufacturing include the tooling workshop, which makes anything toย do with the tool housings, internal electronics, and motors.
Chervon Factory Tour: Tooling and Machining
Tooling involves more than just making metal molds. Itโs a detailed process for ensuring the materials used correctly fill the molds and ensure proper material fit in the final product.
In the grinding room, we saw CNC machines water cutting the toolsโand other items used to create the tools which make the tools. CAD rooms housed engineers who designed the actual digital models used for setting up the tooling for products built in the factory. Thereโs a lot more involved than we ever would have thought. Computers areย used to simulate how the mold process willย work with the materials. Different colors represented different risk factors for deformation, and the design can be optimized for both resultsย and efficiency. Aย CAMย (computer-aided machining) is then usedย to determine the optimized machining methodology for making the part.
Only after all of this is designedย canย production of the tooling and parts begin. This process is used for both plastic injection and Alu-dieย casting molding. This area is really the starting point for ensuring the quality of the tools is optimized. But even just ensuring your computer simulations and tests areย right isnโt the final step.ย For making tooling, actualย measured precision is imperative. One way to do this is to use a high-quality measurement device, such as a Zeiss Contura, to match the produced tool to the computer design. There are always differences between the computer design and the final tool, so understanding these deviations is imperative to staying within desired tolerances.
The final step is called the โsparkingโ process. Heat treatment for the cavity and insert is important in order toย ensure the tooling holds up to constant and long-term use. A manufacturing tool is only good until it no longer produces reliable components. Sometimes, when manufacturing a tool, Chervon leaves a bit of extra material to compensate for potential deformation, and then they can use the sparking process to achieve the final desired specifications.
One of the tools we got to examine on this leg of the Chervon factory tour was the insert and cavity tools for the EGOย 56V 5.0Ah battery packโthis is the battery that comes with the new EGO LB5300 56V blower.
Plastic Injection Workshop
Chervon uses more than 60 injection machines. They have a centralized drying and conveying system that keeps everything moving and aids in the production process. Changing out a machine fromย one moldย to the following type of mold can be done almost instantly, just by moving the linking from one machine to another. Itโs a well-thought-out system that offers considerable flexibility and productivity enhancements.
Forย largerย parts, Chervonย uses robots to pick and place parts out of the machines, which makes more sense since human workers would require too much exertion and couldnโt perform the duties as quickly (or as accurately). For smaller parts, standard methods using people are much more effective and practical.
Inย Chervonโs quality management system, color management is particularly difficult. The human eye is notoriously easy to fool with color graduation. To combat this, Chervonย uses a set of controlled standard โchipsโ (color swatches) that are good for 10 months and represent the upper and lower limits of the color for theย particular part. These color chips also feature multiple textures, so you can observe the part accurately regardless of the texture of the plastic or polypropylene part on which the color appears. As you can imagine, trying to manufacture a tool for an OEM manufacturer and gradually turning their blue tools turquoiseย would not be well-received!
Machining Center
In the Chervon machining center, the companyย uses a quality assurance management system that specifies exactly which dimensions of a part are most critical to quality. This is very similar to what they do with the tooling, but as it pertains to the interactions of the final parts and components. They can also gauge repeatability and reproducibility, understandingย how their measurement system on the front end affects the tools produced on the back end. Finally, random sampling allows for additional data evaluation, which helps Chervonย maintain the overall process capabilityย of its parts and components. Chervon has its room set at a constant temperature to ensure that its measurements for each part are truly accurate.
Die Casting Facility and Foundry
This was one of my favorite places on the Chervon factoryย tour. The ceiling in this foundry showed just how clean this facility was. Itโs been open for 10 years, and thereโs no visible discoloration above. Considering how much metal is formed and manipulated in the room, thatโs a great testimony to Chervonโs efforts to keep their facility and air quality clean and safe.
The die casting machines we saw wereย fully automatic, and only one worker works in a cell to manage the process. In other facilities youโd see 6โ8 workers per cell. Computerized, data-driven improvement systems are the next big thing for โsmartโ factories, and Chervon is still in the planning stage for a true โsmartโ factory. Indeed,ย some of the preliminary features of that type of facility are, in part, already being seenย here.
To illustrate the workflow we observed during this part of our Chervon factory tour, one robot transported liquid aluminum (at over 1200 degrees F) to a machine that picked up smaller, specific quantities of the hot metal and poured it into an on-site furnace for die casting. The machine then spit out the finished part, and the employee in the cell removedย it, put it into a demurring fixture, checked for flaws, and stacked the finished piece in a cart. It was interesting to watch robots and humans working, essentially, side by side to complete tasks that couldnโt be done as effectively without the machineโs involvement.
Motor Manufacturing
One of our final stops in the Chervon factory tour was the motor manufacturing workshop. Chervonย produces both AC and DCย motors, includingย brushed and brushless models. Companies have to decide whether to โmakeโ or โbuyโ these components. For high-quality products, the decision is usually to build the motor in-house.
This is also affected by the volume of parts needed for the product run.
On a typical brushed motor line, a singleย employee can now manage the entire line. Years ago this used to take a dozen to as many as twentyย employees. Process control is handled by manually inspectingย the commutators via microscopes. Chervonย makes both outer runner and inner runner brushless motors, keeping their options open and enabling them to optimize the right solution for the proper application (For example, the inner runner motor allows for higher RPMs, and the outer runner is smaller and lighter in weight). This facility uses more of a lean conceptย of manufacturing process, the goal being the find the fastest production process as opposed to the cleanest process.
Conclusion
Being able to walk around and participate inย the Chervon factory tour allowed us to get a great feel for howย a larger factory producesย a high volume of power tools reliably and repeatably. Thereโs a lot that goes into cordless and corded power toolย production and understanding the backside of things did a lot to help the folks here at Pro Tool Reviews develop a more thorough understanding of how to test and evaluate tools once they get into our possession.
