Vamistor
Corporation
| COMPANY/LOCATION: |
Vamistor Corporation, Sevierville, Tennessee |
| PRODUCT: |
Precision resistors, both fixed and variable, for defense, aerospace,
and commercial applications |
| YEARS IN BUSINESS: |
16 years in current location, in business 50 years |
| EMPLOYEES: |
43 |
| SITUATION: |
Vamistor wanted an overall company assessment and approached the University
of Tennessee Center for Existing Industry Services for assistance. The
company also decided to concentrate further study on the "filming" process
of nickel/chromium (Ni/Cr) metal thin-film alloy on the inside of ceramic
substrates, which is the basic technology for the company's high-precision
resistors. When Vamistor experienced failures in quality assurance, the
Defense Electronics Supply Center (DESC) placed a "stop shipment" hold
on all of Vamistor's qualified resistors. The situation threatened the
company's total operation. Vamistor asked for emergency assistance in the
form of a sophisticated failure analysis for the troublesome resistor.
Since completion of that project, Vamistor has entered into a new cooperative
research and development agreement with the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing
Technology. |
| PROJECT: |
In the initial assessment, an industrial engineer assessed financial
functions, quality assurance, and management employee training needs and
conducted an end-to-end review of the company's manufacturing process.
In the emergency assistance, ORCMT engineers performed an in-depth failure
analysis for the resistor, including an auger electron analysis and electron
microscopy, which proved to DESC that the company did not have an inherent
Ni/Cr film problem. This intensive analysis covered more than 2,000 hours.
Engineers from ORCMT traced the cause of the resistor failure to exposure
of the resistors to excessively high temperatures during the manufacturing
process that caused "outgasing" of a varnish inside the ceramic tube. Improvements
to the vapor deposition and coating process recommended by the ORCMT
staff solved the problem. |
| RESULTS: |
The assessment saved the company between $3,000 and $5,000. Analysis
of Vamistor's filming process resulted in saving of an estimated $12,000
to $14,000. The emergency assistance to solve the resistor failure
problem was, however, the most significant result for Vamistor. John Boatman,
president and CEO of Vamistor, said that "without the timely failure
analysis performed by the Oak Ridge Complex, Vamistor most likely would
have been closed permanently, which would have resulted in the loss of
approximately 60 jobs and a gross payroll of $900,000 in Tennessee
and Sevier County." |
Technical assistances provided to the private sector by the Oak Ridge
Centers for Manufacturing Technology (ORCMT) and its manufacturing extension
partners throughout the United States.
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