Prior to 2006, Dazor used a conventional press and die to join the task light’s socket swivel and shade. But this method often produced inconsistent pressing, preventing Dazor assemblers from properly seating the socket swivel to the shade and meeting company quality control standards. “An average of four out of 10 shades would need to be reworked, including stripping the paint, repainting and refinishing,” says Jeff DeProw, manufacturing engineer at Dazor. “One out of 10 also would be scrapped. These numbers were unacceptable.”
The challenge for Dazor was, and is, assembling the components within a demanding tolerance of ± 0.002 inch. The proper amount of press force has to be applied in a highly controlled manner or the swivel-and-shade assembly will either be too loose or too tight, causing the paint to chip off.