INEGI helped Ricardo & Barbosa to increase quality of their crimping tools

Ricardo & Barbosa, a portuguese company dedicated to the design and manufacture of high precision tools for various industries, had the support of INEGI to increase the useful life of its crimping tools.

The objective of the project was to increase the efficiency of the production process of the tools and to improve the processing of the raw material, steel. To this end, INEGI's team of specialists "carried out an extensive set of characterization tests, to select the most promising solutions, namely in terms of the type of raw material, heat treatments, surface treatments, coatings and manufacturing techniques.”, says Rui Pedro Silva, responsible for the project at INEGI.

This study - which involved the analysis of the tools at different stages of the production process and of tools subject to different usage cycles - allowed "a better understanding of the influence of different stages of the production process on the final quality of the product and, also, the evaluation of the wear suffered by the tools throughout their life cycle.” This means that it is easier to identify potential signs of wear and, consequently, guarantee a higher quality of the crimping carried out.

At the same time, within the scope of the project, the company developed a new pneumatic supply applicator, intended for the preparation of crimping tests of cable terminals for vehicle electrical distribution systems (drive-by-wire).

The project with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-045395 - Steell EVO.: Steell Evolving is co-financed by the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (COMPETE 2020), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

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