Panel End Cap

End Cap Solution

Situation

A leading designer and manufacturer of sophisticated office systems wanted to reduce its costs by replacing some of its metal components with plastic parts. In order to do so, the holding system on the panel end cap of their office divider panel was redesigned.

Challenge

Under a tight time constraint, the Formtech design team engineered a new plastic extruded solution to replace the existing metal fabricated unit:

  1. The new solution had to be quickly developed, manufactured, and shipped.
  2. An office furniture finish and specialized fabrication were required

Solution

Formtech’s in-house engineering team developed the following solution:

  1. Formtech’s engineers were able to redesign the existing metal part using a combination of multiple material extrusions of rigid and flexible materials.
  2. Initial fabrication was quickly executed using Formtech’s in-house-developed end-of-line tooling.
  3. The new design provided a mechanical attachment over the entire length, which allowed the customer to continue using its existing panel end.
  4. Lab testing of the initial and final design was scheduled to ensure temperature stability of the assembled walls in shipment.

Results

Formtech’s team rose to the challenge to provide a superior solution with several added benefits:

  1. Production was soon switched to more efficient in-line fabrication, which proved to be successful.
  2. The new part provided a significant cost reduction by replacing the painted metal process.
  3. Field damage from dents and scrapes was significantly reduced.