Granted Patent B2

US 6,915,568 · App. 10/744,275 · Granted Jul 12, 2005

Assignee: Metaldyne Company LLC

Abstract

Claims (8)

1. In a method of mass production of connecting rods utilizing five discrete work stations, said connecting rods having a crank bore at a first end, a pin bore at a second end, a shank portion disposed between the first and second ends and a cap along the first end, the method comprising:

providing a work piece;

rough grinding thrust faces on said work piece at a first work station;

boring a crank bore in a first end of said work piece including fracture notches and boring a pin bore in a second end of said work piece at a second work station, said second work station having a single machine with flexible tooling capable of performing all boring operations;

fracture splitting said work piece to create a cap along the first end of said work piece at a third work station;

finish grinding said thrust faces at a fourth work station; and

honing said crank bore and said pin bore at a fifth and final work station, wherein said honing occurs without additional boring subsequent to said fracture splitting.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the work piece is formed from a powdered metal material.

Assignments (32)

Continuity (2)