Development and application of a homemade procedure for manufacturing of mechanical spare parts

A homemade procedure for manufacturing of mechanical replacement parts was developed. The approach was applied to a guide ruler installed in machinery to produce steel rod frames. The guide ruler part, which is produced by the original manufacturer of the equipment, acts as an alignment guide of the steel wires. It ensures that the steel wires can be welded in the correct position so that the steel rod frames can be properly constructed. The guide ruler was selected due to its paramount importance for the proper functions of the equipment, the intensity of service loads, its high costs and poor availability. The methodology adopted for the homemade procedure was based on obtaining comparable chemical composition, microstructure and mechanical properties of the imported part. The main goal was to reduce the costs and delivery time for the acquisition of each spare part. The homemade procedure here used, however, is considered complete only after a comparison of the parts service performance and after an evaluation of the cost/benefit ratio. The results show that the studied part exhibited an increased economic efficiency in the equipment of about 83.0 percent, therefore its manufacturing in Brazil is viable.