The Screwdriver Project

Lessons Learned

Many processes involved in this project went very quickly, such as the heat treatment and forging tasks. However, these tasks are just as difficult and involved as the longer machining processes carried out in other machining projects, such as lathing or milling. It is important to be confident during these quick processes and trust your instincts as just a few second can make huge differences in the results of the product. Also, the screwdriver project involved dangerous tools such as the acetylene torch and drop forge. It is important that you be knowledgeable about these tools and understant their safety requirements before using them. 

Cost Estimate to Make One Screwdriver Package (One Phillip's head and One flathead screwdriver)

The screwdriver project consists of two parts: the metal flathead screwdriver and the injection molded Phillips head screwdriver. Both of these pieces are made of multiple components, whose combined cost is calculated below:

The screwdriver required hours of manual labor, the cost of which is calculated below:

The total cost of the screwdriver package with the cost of labor included is $511.10

Improving Clock Production and Efficiency

If this process were to be automated, I suggest that the steel screwdriver tip be machined seperately before the addition of the aluminum handle. Large batches of steel rods could be fed onto a conveyor where the tips can be drop forged by an automated closed-dye forge. Then, these screwdriver shanks can be collected and fed into a different machine that automates the grinding and shaping process. Then, they could be collected as large batches and fed through ovens to harden and temper many screwdriver shanks at once. Once the screwdriver shanks are shaped and heat treated, they could be tumble polished also as large batches. Once the screwdriver shanks are completely finished, they could be fed into molds where the aluminum handles could be cast around the shanks. Then, the screwdrivers could be installed into CNC lathes to be cut and knurled. The injection molded screwdrivers could be manufactured almost completely independently by a series of injection molds with screw driver shanks fed into them. The molds would release the finished screw drivers into a collection bin, and the machine would repeat the process of injecting the screw drivers and releasing them.

Cost Estimate to Make 10,000 Screwdrivers

The cost for 10000 screwdriver packages is calculated below:

If it costs 5$ per hour to use the machines needed for manufacturing the screw drivers and it takes 1 hour to complete a set of screw drivers, the final cost per screwdriver package would be $98.64