I can weigh our cast housing. Apparently that is the only weight either supplier needs, judging by the quotes. One tool has long fingers and the other has a chunky adapter, with hose fittings sticking out behind both.
I'm still learning this, but surely those bits travel too. What should I ask them to show so I can compare the actual loaded tools rather than a part weight repeated in two brochures?
Ask for the complete assembled configuration and its loaded assessment, including the held position. Part mass alone leaves out the hardware and where that load sits.
One supplier has an assembly drawing but no complete mass information. The other gives total tool mass without showing where the housing is held. Complementary omissions, very considerate.
On our pallet proposal the extra work hid outside the attractive drawing; here it sounds like the extra hardware does the same. I'd keep both quotes provisional until their omissions are priced and drawn.
Include how each arrangement approaches the nest, releases the housing and withdraws. A tool that passes the loaded assessment may still need different access or a different release task, and that can change the application cost.
The longer-finger proposal was meant to reach past our nest rim. I hadn't asked whether the gripper can open there. That's now in the comparison request.
Yes. If somebody proposes changing that rim, the fixture designer needs to review its locating and loading role. Removing an obstruction from the drawing should not quietly remove a needed feature from the process.
The rim guides manual loading for the same nest. No change proposed yet; I have asked the fixture designer to join the access review rather than let us casually delete it.
Both suppliers are revising their assembly information. Still no complete loaded assessment or release check. Purchasing has the quotes marked incomplete, which is less exciting but more accurate.
Who will maintain the final assembly definition when fingers or adapters are replaced later? Put that ownership in the handover while the configuration is being made explicit.