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Original Date: 07/09/2007
Revision Date: / /
Information : Continuous Product Improvement
The Inpro/Seal Company adheres to a policy of continuously improving its product design and performance through the company’s in-house engineering, experimental machining cell, and experimental laboratory. The test procedures, test equipment, and metrics gained from the lab tests allow the company to quickly evaluate the incremental improvements that are made daily.
The Inpro/Seal Company of Rock Island, Illinois, is a manufacturer of non-contact bearing isolators for use on any rotating shaft that must be protected from leakage of bearing lubricant or incursion of contaminants into the bearings. The company has a history of continuously improving the quality and applications of its products. This is evident in the more than 54 U.S. and foreign patents the company has received on its products since 1975. As the company grew, it actively solicited ideas for product improvement from its employees, designers, customers, and in some cases – its competitors.
The addition of a research laboratory and the ability to collect and analyze performance data in real time has greatly added to Inpro/Seal’s continuous product improvement effort. The company regards the laboratory as its Research and Experimentation (R&E) Laboratory versus a Research and Development Laboratory. The R&E Laboratory is equipped with a variety of test stations that include turning motors, applying water spray, and measuring power among others. With the R&E Laboratory, its in-house engineering capability, and its experimental machining cell, Inpro/Seal is able to quickly and inexpensively evaluate and verify improvements or the lack of improvements in proposals.
Inpro/Seal’s goal of continuous improvement in product performance and experimentation of changes has led to an approximate 8- to10-fold increase in the ability of its isolators to keep contamination out of the bearings they are designed to protect. As an engineer-to-order company, Inpro/Seal can incorporate findings from its laboratory data and test into new designs on a daily basis.
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