Over 140 years' of engineering expertise
Design
Lander’s engineering excellence is centred on class-leading design and predictive analysis capabilities.
To support our seats in Catia V5, Siemens NX and Inventor we can also offer simulation technologies such as FEA, CFD and Geometric Tolerancing stack analysis.
With dedicated product design engineers and applications engineering support, we work closely with customers to identify and develop the best possible engineering solutions for each project.
We also work with our customers to develop their products with support ranging from design for manufacturing (DFM) recommendations to full-service support for development and testing of design concepts. Our Design, Applications Engineering and Program Management teams work closely together to deliver against our customer requirements.
Product Development
The Lander Product Development Centre is based at our Birmingham facility and is fully equipped with the latest equipment to allow the rapid manufacture of a wide range of fluid carrying components in a range of materials including steel, aluminium, plastic and rubber.
Our experienced team also coordinate all prototype requirements of structural products to ensure that the customer’s expectations are met.
The department provides invaluable feedback to the Engineering department and customers on the feasibility and Design for Manufacture (DFM) of a part. This helps with the further development of product designs to achieve the most cost-efficient part when moving into serial production.
The department’s capabilities include CNC bending, end forming, brazing, welding, assembly and leak testing. It is also supported by a multifunctional toolroom and 3D printing capability to provide contact tooling and checking gauges if required.
We also carry a wide range of standard tooling to try and keep cost and lead times to a minimum for our customers.
Detailed dimensional validation is carried out using a CMM or Faro arm measurement system in our fully equipped quality lab.
Poka Yoke
At Lander we are committed to supplying high quality products to our customers. We utilise a number of poka-yoke mechanisms to help eliminate product defects by building quality into our processes. These mechanisms can be very sophisticated to help remove the risk of human error during the production process.
The poka-yoke systems we use within our processes include sensors and camera vision systems to ensure component part presence. If a part fails the validation process, it is locked down into fixture to prevent a reject getting to the customer. In this instance the part cannot be released again until the section Team Leader releases it and then the part is marked as a reject. These systems help to protect the quality of product supplied to our customers.
Project Management
Lander pride ourselves on being more than just a supplier to our customers. We are committed to developing long term relationships with both our customers and suppliers. As part of this commitment, we assign dedicated professional Programme Managers and cross-functional project management teams to support the New Product Introduction process. The team meet on a weekly basis to review progress and support smooth project launches.
Our Programme Management team utilise a structured gateway project management system that encompasses key customer milestones, to enable a seamless transition from customer concept through product and process development stages into launch and up to 90 days after the start of production. During the Launch phase the status of each project is reviewed by the senior management team every week in order to clear any roadblocks that may impact project timing.
The Programme Manager for each project becomes the single point of contact during the NPI phase and is able to advise the customer on all aspects of the project including design, validation, cost, timing and APQP.
Plastic Tube Bending
Lander has a number of different processes within its plants for the production of nylon tube assemblies. With the requirement for lighter weight parts, we are seeing increasing demand from customers for the plastic pipes that we can supply.
As well as the more traditional oven curing and hot-air processes, Lander has also invested in a world first state-of-the-art Nylon tube processing machine. This helps us to produce sample parts in a very short timeframe.
We also carry a range of standard tooling to help minimize cost and lead time for samples. Product design changes can be easily incorporated via simple programme change which helps drastically reduce the retooling costs associated with traditional forming methods.
Whether you require low volume, prototype runs or high-volume production the machine can produce multiple contours with changeovers managed by simple programme changes.
Bend, heating and cooling settings are entered and adjusted easily to produce accurate and repeatable components from 6mm to 20mm diameter and up to 1500mm in length, in a range of material types operating up to 150°c, including single layer, multi-layer and corrugated, we are able to satisfy any requirement.
We also have more traditional nylon tube processing systems in the form of curing ovens and hot air forming. Through the use of forming fixtures we can produce any range of volume to almost any size required.
Our tube bending operations are supported with associated processes such as plastic pipe beading, end forming, assembly and testing. Our parts also feature components including various clips, quick connectors and sensors and are used across many vehicle applications.