Hydraulic presses raise jobbing productivity hydraulic presses offer greater job control, speed, easier set-up and small footprint, are more repeatable, as a transducer measures the press position, says a user. Because of Homac Manufacturing Company's ability to meet their customer's needs with quality products and unique solutions to their electrical transmission needs, the orders continued to flow in at an ever-increasing rate. Even though Homac (Ormond Beach, Florida, USA) used mechanical presses since its inception, they decided to begin a changeover from mechanical presses to a hydraulic press solution that offered them greater job control, better operator safety, faster and easier die setup, and reduced floor space.

Homac makes electrical transmission connectors for OEMs, utilities and contractor industrial sales.

Their product line includes over 28,000 part numbers.

Connectors range from small 1/2in by 1/2in wire connectors to ones incorporating wire components and end connectors that are three feet long and several inches wide.

Homac was founded by President Mark McGrane's father in 1963 and grew over the years through innovations and acquisitions.

'We started in New Jersey and moved to Florida in 1973.

Homac capitalized on the trend by utility companies to bury their cables for underground residential electrical distribution.

We were able to invent electrical connectors that met our customers' needs in an innovative way by saving them labor costs.

Connectors needed to be waterproof, leading us to develop proprietary designs that allow them to be waterproofed quickly and in less space than competitive products,' said McGrane.

'Our product designs were developed through personal contact with our customers.

They told us what they use now and what their problems were.

We were able to come up with completely new connector designs based on our customers' needs.

The only limitation we had for connectors was the space it needed to fit in, usually a transformer cabinet or underground junction box,' added McGrane.

'Because my father is no longer around to help us with our designs and manufacturing, Homac now has manufacturing and product development engineers.

Our design and production functions have been spread throughout the organization,' McGrane remarked.

Homac's product development process involves all the various manufacturing groups to produce good ideas, and ones that can be turned into a manufacturable product.

They use concurrent engineering with a multi-disciplinary team led by product development engineers.

However, manufacturing engineers and production personnel are involved from the concept stage to insure they're not conceptualizing, prototyping, testing, and getting something approved but can't be manufactured.

'We've been successful with the innovative connectors we've brought to market so far with this process.

It's probably more successful than a more tribal knowledge type of process that we had prior to it.