New Product Development with a Specialist Direct Drill OEM

Overview

Chapmans was approached by a long-standing customer wishing to develop a new direct drill point assembly to secure their market position against cheap, eastern imported aftermarket cast replacements.

Issue

Our customer faced strong competition from overseas in the spare parts market, where several importers are supplying points and wings to fit their direct drill machines.  They came up with a concept for a new drill point assembly which they believed could move them ahead of the competition and needed help in bringing it to market at short notice with a “cost down” objective.

There were severe time constraints on the development of the point assembly.  The customer needed production batches within three months of the initial meeting to ensure that the products were available within the same drilling season both on new machines and as spare parts for existing users.

Design Brief

The new drill point needed to be able to fit both new build machines and machines already out in the field, as replaceable parts. The design brief was also to slash the cost of a new point for the user but not to reduce the wear life of the part. If necessary, the successful design would be protected, to ensure the integrity of the OEM part.

The point had to be hard-wearing, with both tungsten carbide tiles and hard facing and remain as a “quick-fit” option to minimize change over and replacement of the point. Three sizes of wing were defined, in order to meet the requirements for different crops of users.

Our Proposal

We therefore designed an adaptor assembly to fit on the existing leg along with three types of wing to meet the spare parts requirement.  The carbide drill point itself was designed to be a universal fit, common to both new build machines and those already in the field, with the size of the point much smaller in its replacement function.

The Result

The assembly was an immediate success with users asking to switch to the new design point as soon as they saw them. Users experienced no reduction in wear life compared to the previous design and at a much lower unit cost. It allowed our machinery customer to regain his market share of parts with a protected design that was of greater benefit at a lower cost to their users than ever before.