Fourscore and 65 years ago, Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” As they apply to the metal stamping industry, truer words have never been said.

      Many metal working manufacturers today employ adjunct equipment and production accessories that are designed to improve or extend the performance of manufacturing operations. Yet over time, many of these products can fall short of expectations. Whether it’s due to inferior components or poor design, under-performing production equipment can drain profitability and erode customer confidence – a total lose-lose situation.

Field testing – the science behind the success "Field testing – the science behind the success"

      One company has developed a method that ensures total customer satisfaction in the performance of its products, while building strong customer relationships at the same time. Vibro Industries, a Port Royal, Penn. manufacturer of air-operated conveying systems, employs good old-fashioned field-testing trial and error. Field-testing allows Vibro to fine tune its products, called Transporters, to handle on-the-job performance requirements before they are released to the market en masse.

      The principle behind the Vibro Transporter is its pneumatic cylinder design that operates on air pressure to move a product-tray back and forth, causing the material to steadily advance. On the slow-accelerated forward stroke, material is transported forward. During the rapid return-stroke, material remains stationary, thus ensuring constant movement in one direction. Leroy Johnson, president of Vibro Industries, introduced the first Transporter in 1985. Since that time, Vibro continues to improve its products with extensive experimentation and rigorous testing. Today, Vibro Transporters operate in a wide variety of conveying applications in manufacturing operations worldwide.

      Depending on the situation, Vibro provides test-site customers with Model 250, 320, 450 and 850 Transporter prototypes. Once installed, Vibro closely monitors the performance of each test unit. Typically, a unit is tested for approximately one year. Then a new unit is installed and...

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