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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

FastLane Helps Slone Gear Automate Gear Inspection

With the help of: Ohio Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Ohio MEP)

About

Slone Gear International, Inc., based in Tipp City, Ohio, develops and distributes gear metrology products, both standard and custom gaging solutions for the most challenging gear and spline measurement applications. Slone Gear is a full service, shop floor gear measurement enterprise offering everything from hand gages to fully automatic laser measurement systems. It is their mission to shift gear inspection closer to the manufacturing machine.

The Challenge

Automotive OEMs want to fully automate gear inspection and inspect 100% of the gears during the production process. By monitoring and controlling their manufacturing process using this new laser based measurement system, automotive companies can catch suspect gear quality issues at the grinder and avoid costly consequences further down the line. Slone Gear was building a next-generation measurement system and needed specialized help with this product. The company turned to FASTLANE, part of the Ohio MEP and the MEP National Network™, for assistance. 
We were impressed with the support we received throughout the project, the quick response time, and the level of engagement. We worked closely with Mark McCormick and couldn’t be more grateful for time he spent with our team. He was knowledgeable, professional, and we hope to work with him again in the future! The Fastlane group helped Slone Gear take our product to the next level, increase our revenue, and reduce our costs. What a great team!
— Patricia Kukulka, President

MEP's Role

FastLane identified and vetted a specialty machine builder to optimize the measurement system design, reduce costs and ensure manufacturability. This next-generation measurement system needed enhanced performance and lower manufactured cost to create future higher volume demand. FastLane helped shape the manufacturing ramp-up strategy and offered funding support that helped Slone more rapidly qualify its fabricator and get pre-production systems into field testing faster. Success at this stage was essential to gaining end user acceptance and faster sales growth. FastLane’s technical and financial support allowed Slone to accelerate final product development, field testing and customer acceptance. By teaming with FastLane, Slone was able to more rapidly secure critical follow-on orders from automotive OEM customers and begin full production ramp-up. 

Created May 7, 2022, Updated December 17, 2022