Richardson Cooling Packages (RCP) designs, manufactures and supports an industry leading line of cooling system parts and assemblies for use in off-highway applications. Products include radiators, charge-air coolers, oil coolers, coolant hoses, charge-air pipes, engine and radiator mounting brackets and equipment enclosures. Some stationary and mobile applications include generators, pumps, wood chippers, aerial platforms and lawn mowers. RCP’s extensive engineering and manufacturing capabilities, including award-winning custom test equipment to validate product performance, allow them to meet the diverse requirements demanded by their customer base.
RCP was formed in 2002 in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and has been ISO 9001 and 14001 certified since 2011. Through their product development efforts, they have significantly improved the durability of aluminum heat exchangers, making them competitive with the more costly copper units. Various engineering and manufacturing innovations made this possible, including three US Patents.
In addition to wanting a lower-cost and more durable product, RCP desired to reduce lead-times and inventory levels. This required the re-shoring of heat exchanger production which meant manual welding would be cost-prohibitive. Therefore, the units were designed to be robotically welded. RCP’s engineering team researched and implemented a robotic welding cell complete with an automated positioning fixture that, through continuous improvement, reduced weld time by 85% over manual welding. This required multiple innovative solutions along the way, such as implementing a laser profilometer to detect the exact weld joint position along the rough, cast surface of the aluminum tank. With this product previously manufactured overseas, RCP hired additional skilled employees to operate the new welding cell.
“The robotically welded heat exchanger line has been successful. So much so that we are expanding into a new facility and have doubled our capacity.”
Brian Meier, Vice President, Engineering