ACL REPORTER

ACL REPORTER
VOLUME 15
WINTER 1998
ANTONY PEARSE - GENERAL MANAGER
REPORT FROM ACL PISTON PRODUCTS
ACLNZ ASSISTS REPCO
STEEL RINGS ROLL AT MAIDSTONE
STANDARDISED WORK
IN POWDER METALLURGY
ACL BEARINGS’ INCREASED RANGE IN USA
ACL BEARINGS’ NEW ROBOTS
AWARD -WINNING APPRENTICES
COMCORK TARGETS ARCHITECTS
®
Australian Engineering Excellence
ACL Piston Products’ Giuseppe Raddino working in the die cast shop. Giuseppe has been with the company for 35 years.

LOADS OF GLOBAL
OPPORTUNITIES
Antony Pearse, General Manager ACL International, was one of the team of nine
who formed the management group involved in the buy-out of Repco 12 years ago.
With nearly 25 years in the business, he has seen many changes over that period.
“Although there have been major
changes in the market - increasing competition,
higher levels of information - I think
that the enormous investment we are now
making in our own plants will have the
greatest impact on our business,” he says.
“Our competitive edge lies in several
areas - we are a world-class quality operation
(all major manufacturing operations are
certified to ISO9001), and we are competitive
on price and competitive on delivery.
Compared to our larger opposition, we are
friendlier and more able to tailor a solution
Repco is ACNZL’s largest customer, and
has seventy-five branches throughout
New Zealand.
When these branches receive telephone
enquiries the calls are diverted to a Repco
Telephone Room.The North Island Telephone
Room consists of 45 staff,and is known
as “Branch 45”.
The South Island operation is set up in
to a particular customer’s needs.”
Antony spent six years in the United
States and notes the importance of the US
connection (ACL America holds the No 3
position in the US engine bearing market),in
providing an entrée to other world markets,
Latin America especially.
“The great thing about America is its
national pride, but here in Australia I believe
we are developing a more positive view about
our own nation,and becoming more serviceoriented.Communication
is playing a stronger
role in the service model, too, and we are
ACNZL ASSISTS
REPCO WITH A
LITTLE PRODUCT
KNOWLEDGE
Left to right Mohammed Sahid,
Darryl Dixon, John Routen (ACNZL),
Jason Greenwood and Tristan Adams.
Christchurch and is manned by a staff of 20.
These centres are open for business from
7.30am to 6.00pm seven days a week. At
Branch 45, regular staff training is the order
of the day. In fact, this occurs every day for
selected staff, and runs from 8 - 8.30am.
Recently ACNZL was called in by Repco to
top up their ACL product knowledge. Every
morning for a week John Routen, Product
now communicating with our customers
increasingly via email and the Internet.
Doing business this way is faster and more
efficient,” he notes.
Of course,being part of a global market,
events in other countries can impact upon
ACL’s business. “The Indonesian situation
has affected us the most, causing us to retain
stock we would have preferred to sell. On
the positive side, however, that situation has
caused us to move beyond our traditional
Asian markets.For example,we are developing
sales opportunities in Vietnam, Thailand,
Bangladesh and the Philippines.Three or four
years of laying groundwork in China is also
starting to pay off.”
It is pleasing that business in South
Africa is picking up again after a short lull.
ACL intends to focus increasingly on Europe.
Large engine rebuilding plants in Central
Europe may be the way into these potentially
lucrative markets.
“Long term, I also believe there is sales
potential for us in the Middle East, although
the current weakness of the yen is making it
difficult for us to compete against Japanese
manufacturers,”said Antony.Overall, Antony
stresses that there are excellent international
export opportunities for ACL.
“I want to expand our markets for pistons,
rings and gaskets,while continuing to build on
the solid export base we have in bearings. And,
on the back of that, identify other markets
and match them to particular products.We
have often been successful in finding a
particular part with a reasonable volume -
piston ring, bearings, gasket or whatever -
then marketing that part competitively. In
those situations, that may be all that the
customer wishes to buy from us.The main
thing is to keep looking for opportunities
in which we can satisfy customer needs -
big or small.
Engineer at ACNZL, held training sessions.
The obvious subject of pistons,gaskets,
and bearings was rounded off with a demonstration
of the gasket clamping load measuring
equipment (see photo). This equipment has
been used at many trade evenings throughout
New Zealand.
Further training took place during July
in the South Island Telephone Room.

R E P O R T F R O M A C L P I S T O N P R O D U C T S
STEEL RINGS READY TO
ROLL AT MAIDSTONE
Colin McDonald, left, with Kon Archon standing in front of the module
According to Colin McDonald, steel rings pushed Piston Products into overdrive.
have been around for many years. He said to date they would have spent
“Basically, they were used in heavy duty more than $750,000 on new equipment, new
diesel applications in the past, and with the processes, and training to get the company
new design in engines, pistons are having ready for full production in August ’98.
their top groove pushed up so far in the “We had to look for a contractor who
compression area, that they’re required could do the heat treatment for the nitriding,
now to have a ring that can withstand the and currently we use a salt bath process which
temperatures and combustion,” said Colin. is a very robust process,” explained Colin.
The answer lay in steel rings, which underwent
a nitride heat treatment process that great deal of support was also forthcoming
While Colin headed up the project, a
gave the finished product a tougher surface from the production, maintenance and engineering
people on site.“Kon Archon was a
to handle the new extremes.
Colin said the company started looking tremendous help,”said Colin,“and most of the
at steel rings back in 1994 but it wasn’t until equipment we now have was built outside.
1995 when Ford revealed their plans for a We’ve also purchased equipment from overseas
new engine for the end of the century, and with one grinder costing around $500,000.
requiring new steel nitride rings, that really The main machine in the module, is called
NEW PISTON LINE
FULLY INTEGRATED
The new piston line that will Project Manager, Simon Parker, said that
the new piston program,which required
manufacture pistons for the Ford
new phosphate and skirt coating equipment,
Falcon 1990X, has now been fully was first started back in 1996 when the division
integrated into ACL Piston Products’ needed to tool up for the new product.
production system.
“The equipment was bought and installed
and trials were made in 1997. We had deadlines
to meet from Ford for samples, as they
wanted also to trial the finished product,”
said Simon.“The issue was how could this
new equipment support our high volume
production line? So we went from a manufacturing
line to a fully integrated process
line. The manufacturing line was turning
out a piston every 12 seconds, so the new
phosphate line had to match that speed.”
The new equipment was integrated
The new skirt coating
without incurring extra labour costs, utilising
the existing automatic off load machine.
a steel coiling machine, and this was built
by a local machine builder, Invetech and
Kon did a lot of work with this builder in
the development stage,” said Colin.
The steel ring module consists of a
coiling machine, a wind down machine, a
slitting machine, a loading machine, a heat
form oven and a gapping machine.The front
end of the process is the module,which integrates
with the rest of the production in the
workshop. “Half-way through the process
we send the rings out for nitriding, and this
must be integrated into our production flow,”
said Colin. Extensive trials have been undertaken
with full production expected to take
place in August.
The $500,000 grinder
especially purchased for the process.
The line fully integrated into the production schedule.
Instead of off loading the piston onto a peg,
it loaded it onto overhead hangers.
Over Christmas, the company installed
the new line with due regard for existing
manufactured products while integrating the
new equipment.“The equipment and control
was such that we could still run and supply
existing orders for pistons until such time as
we started ramping up in proper volumes,”
said Simon.
Some $1.3 million has been spent to
ready the division for full production in the
areas of new pistons and rings for the next
generation of Falcons.

R E P O R T F R O M A C L P I S T O N P R O D U C T S
From left Robert Edwards, Lyha Tu, Colleen Lawson., Robert Tetkowski, and
warehouse Group Leader, Russell Flanders.
WAREHOUSING FUNCTION
MOVES ACROSS TOWN
ACL Piston Products was, until July 22nd,THE distribution centre for all ACL pistons that were sold.
Margaret Webber assisting customers at National Parts.
There were three main customer groups,
OEM’s like Ford, GM etc, big engine
reconditioners throughout Australia and
Brandline customers who were purchasing
engine kits off the shelf.ACL Piston Products
would assemble these kits and distribute them
nationally via couriers, post, airfreight, etc.
But not anymore.
From July 22nd all Brandline distribution
was taken over by National Parts -
the old Federal Mogul Company that ACL
acquired last year.
Robert Edwards, ACL Piston Products
Quality Group Leader, said the move to
centralise the distribution of ACL product
was a “logical step because of National Parts’
expertise in warehousing and distribution,
while our expertise is in manufacturing.”
Over the last couple of months a great
deal of stock has been transferred to National
Parts’ warehouse in Rowville in Melbourne,
as well as shipping more ACL products to
National Parts’ warehouses in Brisbane,
Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.
Robert said a great deal of work was
undertaken to make the computer systems
between the two companies compatible.“The
main focus is to ensure that there is a seamless
hand-over for our customers,” said Robert.
To assist in this transfer, some of the
internal sales team spent time at National
Parts assisting the company bed down the
system. One of the advantages of the new
system will be that customers interstate will
be able to have quicker access to a wider
range of ACL products to supplement their
own inventory holding.
While the main warehouse will be centred
at National Parts, ACL Piston Products will
need to maintain some warehousing function
to meet National Parts’ needs.
“One of the main changes will be getting
away from centralised warehousing to
more departmentalised warehousing. We’ll
need to create a lot more warehouse floor
space so a particular part will be in a dedicated
area under the control of the people
who work in that area. They’ll have more
ownership of their own inventory,” explained
Robert.
He said that there had been a harmonious
team effort between the working
groups of the two companies to ensure a
smooth transfer.

R E P O R T F R O M A C L P I S T O N P R O D U C T S
EMPLOYEES CELEBRATE
LONG SERVICE AWARDS
A number of well-known employees at ACL Piston Products celebrated
long service awards recently and amongst the long-timers were:
Receiving their awards from Piston Products’ General Manager, Ewen Kilpatrick (centre) are Luigi Calandra (left) and Joe Pulis.
LUIGI CALANDRA 30 years
Luigi commenced on the 9th April,1968,
as a “viewer” in the metrology department
at Rolloy. In January, 1972, he transferred to
the Laboratory where he was involved mostly
with the quality control of the foundry heat
treatment. In 1976 he was reclassified as a
Technical Assistant - 3rd year,and in 1978 was
reclassified as a Technical Assistant.He became
a heat treater in the Die Cast Shop also in
1978 and has been in the position ever since.
GEORGE FRANGOS 20 years
George worked at Maidstone from 1970
until 1977 in the ring shop, progressing
from a second class machinist to a machine
setter. He was made a Leading Hand 3-10
soon after and became a Leading Hand 11-20
in 1974.
He left in 1977 for health reasons but
recommenced with the company in 1978 as
a storeman in the warehouse and became a
Leading Hand 11-20 in 1985. George was
reclassified from C12 Leading Hand 20 +
to a Leading Hand 11-20 in 1994. He has
acted as Team Leader in the absence of
Gary Steinlein on many occasions.
HARTMUT (HARDIE) DOERRE
20 years
Hardie started with the company as a
maintenance fitter on the afternoon shift
in 1978.
He became a storeman in the Die Cast
Shop in 1981 and in 1985 became foreman
of the Die Cast Ring Shop.
In December 1986, Hardie assumed
the role of acting afternoon shift supervisor
upon the resignation of Tom Groves. He
spent four months on the night shift at the
company’s request during 1991.
JOE PULIS 20 years
Joe is currently employed as a maintenance
fitter in the Piston department.
He started as a maintenance fitter on
“head and skirt” lathes when the company
moved from Rolloy to ACL.
One of Joe’s major tasks was updating
machinery to incorporate fluid power systems,
which replaced the less reliable
mechanical systems.
Joe later moved to the Die Cast Shop
when ACL purchased FATA machines for
its die casting process.
One of the major changes that Joe has
noticed over the years, is that fitters have
become very specialised. In the past, it was
common for fitters to undertake plumbing
and building work, whereas they now concentrate
100% on machine maintenance.
THE RE-EMERGENCE OF LINE 5
Operator Lena Trajcevskaz standing in front of the old/new Line 5
Some 18 months ago there was a downturn
in sales of the kind of product
being manufactured on Line 5 at Piston
Products. A lot of the pistons that were
made on that line had disappeared out of
the market. Furthermore, the way the line
was configured meant that it couldn’t produce
the new Duralite pistons and because
the company had the new V8 programme
about to start, it was decided to use some
of the better machines from Line 5 on the
newer Line 2.
Unfortunately or fortunately, no sooner
had they cannibalised Line 5, than sales
started increasing on the older style pistons
that used to be made on that line.
“We had three machines missing off
the line,”said Bob Shepherd,Piston Products’
Manufacturing Engineer. “So instead of
buying them - and they were expensive -
we decided to make them ourselves.
“We just used bits and pieces of old
machinery and got the electronics done
outside,” said Bob. “We purchased in the
hydraulics and we estimate that it actually
cost us about 25% of what it would have
cost us to buy the machines complete from
a manufacturer.”
He said the line was up and running
within 3 months and while Bob did most
of the design work, the company employed
an outside fitter because of existing workloads,
but the actual wiring and moving of
machinery was undertaken by Piston
Products’ maintenance department.
“We built a spot-facing machine from
an old drill then built the machine around
it,” explained Bob.“It spot faces the pip off
the top of the piston head.We need to put
a pip on so we can put a centre in for the
cam turning.Then we need to take the pip
off - it’s like a milling machine.
Keep posted for the new issue of the
“ACL REPORTER” to see if their flying
saucer takes off from Maidstone.
Enough parts left over to build another machine.

NEW MACHINE “SNIPS” EXTRA
HANDLING IN THE BUD!
When it comes to ingenuity, a brains
trust would have a hard time beating
the skills that can be found within the workforce
of ACL.They seem to be able to make
something out of virtually nothing. Their
latest “snipper” machine, made at Piston
Products is a case in point.
According to Mark Boulton, the “snipper”
is a machine that removes the runners
from the castings.“Originally castings were
made from a casting machine and put into a
basket. These were taken to a band saw
where the castings were manually taken out
of the basket and the runners were sawn
off. After sawing, the castings were put back
into another basket and taken for heat
treatment,” explained Mark.
The problem was how to build a
machine that snipped off the runners at the
casting stage. Plus, would the “snipping” be
an integral part of the casting process? The
Piston maintenance department rose to the
challenge and built a prototype. This was
tested over a trial period and design improvements
were made to improve safety, ease of
operation,and make the machine more reliable.
The Piston Products’- designed “snipper”
“When convinced the machine did what
we wanted,”said Mark,“we built three more
machines and put these into production.”
The machine’s creation was a team effort with
the original machine designed by Brendon
Cross, the improvements by David Brose
and Kristian Drake, with the final machines
being brought to fruition by Antonio
Anacleto.The crew from die cast were very
supportive of the project and had a real
willingness to instigate change and do things
more efficiently.
Since the “snippers” have joined the
workforce there has been a reduction in
band sawing and blades, less transportation
and manual loading, and the removal of
potentially dangerous procedures.
A casting ready for heat treatment
ACHIEVING STANDARDISED
WORK IN POWDER METALLURGY
graphs, now adopted across the shop.
As a result of this first standardised work
cell,the team has improved machining output
by fifteen per cent and also identified other
productivity and safety areas where performance
could be improved.
Progress meetings are held every two
weeks to review actions undertaken and further
training is being scheduled to expose a
broader section of team members to the
new methodologies.
‘We view the standardised work programs
as a powerful tool in the machining
area which focuses on all areas of continuous
improvement,’ said Alan Goodwin.
The Standardised Work Team - Members, Glenda Padman and Shaun Heather with Team Leader,Tim Donnachy
tandardised Work is a process of improving
‘‘S quality, eliminating waste, maintaining
safety and providing a base for continuing
improvement,”said ACL Bearing Company’s
Manufacturing Manager, Alan Goodwin,
when introducing the process to the Powder
Metallurgy Plant 3 in February with a special
training program.
Run by ACL’s Industrial Engineering
team, and headed by Phil Dowl, Peter Smith
and William Homan, its participants included
Plant 3 Group leader, Peter Dunn, Team
Leaders,Tim Donnachy and Steve Anderson
and Machining Team members Paul Lambert
and Shaun Heather.
The team commenced with the Ford
camshaft sprocket machining cell and has
now progressed to four more applications,
including Holden and Toyota products.
The machining teams have designed
an hexagonal display stand which houses
all the processing data and hourly output
The display module clearly
shown with Shaun working.

ACL BEARINGS
INCREASES RANGE
OF PRODUCT
FOR AMERICA
With ACL America being ACL Bearing Company’s best export market, there’s
a growing effort by the Launceston-based plant to expand its range so that it can
compete more effectively against other manufacturers in the US market.
According to Bill Dunstone,ACL Bearing’s
Service Manager, 39 additional bearing
sets are being produced which represents an
allocation of some 8,600 tooling hours.
“The objective is to have the sets all
completed by March 1999,” explained Bill,
“and these bearings will be used as “range
additions” across several brands such as
Chevrolet, Volvo, Mazda, Toyota, Honda
and Mitsubishi.”
“Previously, ACL America bought in
product from opposition companies. By
being able to produce our own products for
these vehicles we will increase the company’s
profits and allow Bearing Company to expand
its existing markets.”
He said that the company was in a
position where it could spend time and
effort tooling up to expand its existing range,
to meet the demands of markets like that in
the United States.“When we buy from the
competition we pay a heavy price,” Bill said.
The new product will depend on the
volume that ACL America thinks it will be
able to sell.
“If it’s more than 4-500 sets per annum
we’re seriously looking at adding them to
our range. In some cases there might be only
100 hours of tooling while in other cases there
might be 1,000 hours required. Naturally,
you don’t go out and invest in 1,000 hours
when you only sell a few sets. You’d buy
those from the opposition,” said Bill.
ACL America has given the Bearing
Company a list of products they think could
sell, and it’s for Bill and his team to weigh
up the volume and hours of tooling to see
which products receive priority.
One member of the team Shaun Lyall
has spent 2 years in our American Operation
and has valuable practical knowledge to
assist our programme.
Bill said that so far, more than 3,700
hours has been loaded into the tool room
with 2,050 hours actually completed on a
project basis and pointed out the boys in
the Tool Room were doing an excellent
job. Once the tooling has been completed
the production begins with product being
sent to America.
“We’re looking to the future,” said Bill,
“and it’s an on-going programme.We have
a bi-weekly meeting where we update the
parts, and a copy of the minutes goes to
America. We communicate regularly and
America gives us their priorities and we try
to accommodate their requests.”
Bill said that the company had made a
big commitment to the new programme but
the impact won’t be felt until this time next
year.“We’re laying the ground foundations
for a bigger export business in the years ahead.
Over-sized conrods as well as over-width
flanges were examples of where the company
saw niche markets in the years ahead.
NO SMOKO FOR
THE NEW WORKERS
Repetitive, boring, potentially dangerous
work at ACL Bearing Company has
now been given to a new breed of workers.
They never take smokos, don’t take holidays,
and maintain a constant flow of work day
in day out.
No we’re not speaking about a new
breed of genetically manipulated workers;
rather it’s the robots that ACL Bearing Co
has installed to lighten the load of the human
operators who work amongst these pricey
newcomers.
Phil Dowl, Senior Industrial Engineer
at Bearing Company, said that the first robot
was installed in March ’97 and the second
unit was commissioned by Bearing Company
in December last year.
“They have completely different
applications,” said Phil. “One’s for powder
metallurgy, and the other one’s dedicated
to loading and unloading flange bearings.”
Phil said that the robots had been very
well accepted by the workforce, and because
they were simple to operate,reduced the need
for a lot of training. From a performance
point of view, the robots were expected to
give a 30% improvement over old methods.
In the powder metallurgy area,the robot
One of the robots at ACL Bearing Company
loads and unloads a forming press, deburring,
and laying and stacking the finished product.
“So it has a far greater role there than the
robot we initially commissioned,” said Phil.
Both robots work a three-shift operation,
which supports the justification of
expenditure. With the second robot, the
company determined the specifications and
parameters.The supplier, Robot Technology
(Aust), met and surpassed the specifications,
and according to Phil:“did a very good job.
It was basically a turn-key operation with
electrical support.”
Phil said that the robots had been
installed in potential repetitive strain related
injury areas, and this move was in keeping
with company policy of maintaining the
strictest health and work safety standards.

TARGETING OF ARCHITECTS INCREASES
COMCORK SALES IN VICTORIA
Julius Vertesi, a Comcork Flooring Area
Representative, has been with the company
for some eighteen months.
He started in the Comcork industrial
department.The company’s increased focus and
investment in flooring created an opportunity
and Julius transferred across to Flooring
nine months ago.’
His role is to actively develop the
flooring business in Victoria, with a focused
approach concentrating on key market segments
- Education, Aged Care, Hospitality
and Transport.
Julius feels that the brand is starting to
develop a profile in Victoria with architects
appreciating the product’s distinctive benefits
- comfort, quietness, warmth and safety,
together with its natural aesthetics and
tremendous design potential. He sees the
brand as having considerable sales potential
and looks forward to being part of its growth.
AWARD-WINNING
APPRENTICES
Awards, a biannual competition open to all
apprentices, judged by a panel of industry
and TAFE representatives.
Kane Cruse was the big winner,achieving
first place in the Turning Division of
the Tasmanian Work Skills Prize, and he will
go on to compete in the national titles next
year. Gavin Barnes came third. Both young
men are now Fourth Year apprentices.
Factors considered in judging this award
include accuracy, appearance, surface finish
- and all the items have to fit together to
make a unit. Like all the contestants, Kane
made an article comprising four parts - an
able demonstration of his various turning
skills: screw cutting, facing and boring for
example.
If Kane wins at national level, he will
be eligible to go overseas for the world finals.
A firm supporter and sponsor of the
Work Skills scheme,ACL is behind Kane all
the way and will be giving him additional
work and special purpose training to help
him in the upcoming finals.
From Left: Nathan Edwards, Gavin Barnes, Mathew Steele, Kane Cruse and Jonathan Rehrmann.
ACL’s Tasmanian employees have scooped
a number of industry and company
awards in recent months.
Jonathan Rehrmann won ACL’s own
award for Most Consistent Achievement and
ACL’s Judy Roxburgh Award for Best TAFE
Student was given to Gavin Barnes.
In TAFE’s own awards, which encompass
apprentices all over the northern part
of the state,ACL’s Matthew Steele won Best
First Year Apprentice, Fitting & Machining;
Gavin Barnes won Best Third Year Apprentice,
Mechanical; and Nathan Edwards received
the prize for Practical Competence.
But ACL apprentices also figured
prominently in The Work Skills Australia
YOUR CONTACTS ARE:
Mathew Greentree ......Gasket Company
Donna Stevens .................Piston Products
Mark Deayton ...........Bearing Company
Su Husband......................National Parts
Steve Jenkins .............................ACNZL
Tim Vehlewald .......................ACL USA
Wayne Pearson ...............ACL Comcork