Fall 2005
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Canteen cup stand and other canteen components
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Product Spotlight: The Convertible Canteen Cup Stand
For over seventeen years, the Seattle Lighthouse has supplied quality canteens for the military. Now, the Lighthouse is adding a second canteen system component to its current product line: the canteen cup stand. The cup stand is one component in a three-part system including Lighthouse-made canteens and a metal cup. The cup stand functions as a stove for heating water easily and conveniently while in the field.
“The idea is that the canteen cup would fit into the stand. There’s a place where you would put a trioxane heating tablet so you can heat up liquid,” explains Don Helsel, director of quality and process improvement. “Let’s say you want to boil water; you put the water from the canteen in the cup and then you put it in the cup stand."
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The canteen cup stand is one of three components in the military’s canteen system
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The Lighthouse first produced cup stands for the U.S. military in the 1990s. This time around, orders have expanded to include international customers. “It’s a year-long project,” Don says. “We are making approximately two hundred and fifty thousand units. Twenty-five thousand of those were ordered by the Australian government.”
The cup stand is made in the Lighthouse machine shop, where metal is meticulously cut and shaped through a progressive die sequence. “It’s a very sophisticated process,” Don says. Metal travels through eight die-cut stations on a giant punch press where it is cut and molded into the basic cup stand shape. It then travels to a smaller punch-press, where vents and a rectangular slot are cut into the metal. Finally, the stand is washed, part-marked, and packaged.
The Lighthouse created six new positions for blind individuals to work on the cup stand project. “What’s successful is that it’s really good entry-level work. People are learning how to operate the machines --- the punch presses,” Don says. “It’s very good packaging work. It gives new employees a good feel for working in a machine shop, quality control, and how the process runs.”
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