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Receiving the best quality rollers from a precision roller manufacturing company largely depends on an effective contract review and process planning activity. Having a clear design brief shortens the manufacturing process and reduces the risk of problems occurring with the components. What questions should you ask and what information do you need to provide to be assured of the best result?
Questions To Ask An Industrial Roller Supplier
There are two main questions we feel you should ask a supplier, relating to the standards they apply to their work and how they deal with their customers.
What Manufacturing Standards Do You Follow?
The quality benchmark for engineering and manufacturing is ISO 9001. This sets out minimum standards for production quality, materials and testing in most industries. The Aerospace Industry, however, follows even stricter standards, as set out in EN 9100. It is not obligatory for a supplier to apply EN 9100 unless they are working for an aerospace customer. At Hone-All our opinion is that the enhanced EN 9100 standards make a huge difference in both quality and performance, and so all our rollers comply with aerospace standards, regardless of the sector.
What Is Your Approach To Working With Customers?
Many people share the opinion that the most important element of a supplier relationship is the end product. How they get to that point and the relationship they have with the supplier is a secondary matter. This is true in so far as a high-quality product is the ultimate goal, but we believe that an openhanded relationship is the key to getting there. In common with all reputable suppliers, we pride ourselves on our flexible and honest service. We liaise extensively with our customers at the beginning of the relationship in order to understand their business and their applications.
This enables us to collaborate with customers to ensure all their drawings and parameters are accurate and achievable. This may take a bit of time to get right, but it is ensures that the parts are manufactured correctly. It also saves a significant amount of time on repeat orders.
Supplying Complete Drawings
Probably the most important factor in ensuring an accurate and high-quality product is for your precision roller manufacturer to work from accurate and complete drawings. Without complete drawings, there is very little chance that the end product will meet your specifications, so it is worth taking time to iron out the design phase before commencing a project.
Why are incomplete drawings a problem? The print roller industry uses a lot of advanced manufacturing technology, but the actual designs for rollers stay fairly constant. Many manufacturers use the same kind of roller that they have used for decades. The result can be that drawings are not updated regularly, especially in companies that have been in business for a long time where the knowledge of the component and it’s required process is more extensive than the drawing reflects.
The problem is that when using old drawings, in practice the manufacturing process depends on a lot of acquired knowledge held by various engineers. When a company changes hands or these engineers leave, the knowledge is frequently not added to the drawings and is subsequently lost. The result is that the manufactured product, although faithful to the old drawing, does not reflect the customer specifications which may have improved and developed over the years. This is understandably a source of frustration for both manufacturer and any new supplier.
Our approach is to address potential technical inaccuracies in design drawings before we start building your parts, working with you to overcome points of error and discussing your actual requirements. This may lead us to amend the drawings, adjust your specifications, surface finishes, fits etc. We work closely with you throughout this process to iron out all the details. It is worth getting this right, as doing so ensures your finished products perform the way they are supposed to, avoiding frustrating delays at the testing stage.
Avoiding Industrial Roller Mistakes
Avoid the common mistakes manufacturers make when ordering industrial rollers, by downloading our new Industrial Rollers Guide. Our free e-book explains the industrial roller manufacturing process and how mistakes are likely to occur, helping you avoid missed deadlines and component faults. Get your copy today by clicking here.
For more information on QUESTIONS TO ASK ROLLER MANUFACTURERS FOR THE BEST QUALITY ROLLERS talk to Hone-All Precision Ltd