Case Study: Critical Sealing Surfaces
This customer first heard of Custom Rubber Corp. years before they transferred their business. When their supplier IMCO closed in 2009, Custom Rubber Corp. submitted a successful bid on the business. The customer at that time chose a lower cost supplier and moved all their tooling accordingly. Custom Rubber Corp. stayed in touch and four years later - and a lot of heartache and pain on the customer's side - all of the business transferred to Custom Rubber Corp.
The parts in question are the critical sealing surfaces on small natural gas valves that are used in water heaters, mobile homes, and appliances.
Custom Rubber Corp. Product Transfer Tooling Process
Custom Rubber Corp. followed is standard transfer tooling process:
- The parts are quoted based on drawings and information about the existing tooling. After receiving part samples, Custom Rubber Corp. was able to determine more about the tooling construction and was able to lower the quoted prices.
- Material is selected and samples sent to the customer for their approval.
- This was another case in which all but one of the materials had to be reverse engineered by Custom Rubber Corp. and our strategic material partners.
- Once the tooling arrives at Custom Rubber Corp., the engineering team evaluates each one and determines which machine to match each mold up with.
- The tools are sent to one of our three strategic tooling partners for the minor modifications required to mount them in the machines and run them safely.
- In this case, a few of the molds arrived with missing plates. It's not uncommon for molding companies to have common, proprietary plates that are not owned by the customer. Custom Rubber Corp. has experienced this many times and can easily reverse engineer any missing components.
- Once returned, the molds are mounted in the press, samples run, and a complete PPAP submitted to the customer.
- As production starts up, Custom Rubber Corp. begins collecting defect photos and working with the customer to determine what is acceptable and what is not for each part. This step involves close and regular communication between the two companies, and in some cases, multiple site visits back and forth.
Once established, Custom Rubber Corp. has an excellent track record of staying within the defined bounds of established quality criteria. Custom Rubber Corp. continues to work with this customer to address other shortcomings in their supply chain.
