Every business cares about quality in different ways, but the goal is always the same — provide a high quality product that represents your brand and values as a company and be proud of it. Due to the disparity in processes and methods of obtaining quality products, key governing bodies have been created to help standardize the safety requirements and processes involved with certifying products for specific industries based on their specific needs.
Requirements
The Aerospace, Medical and Military industries provide critical life support/saving equipment that requires zero-downtime. One of the ways that the medical and military industries have ensured high quality in their applications is through visibility. They employ advanced tracking/reporting systems and requirements in order to make all parts and components being used in their products traceable.
This higher level of visibility requires manufacturing OEMs to have robust tracking systems throughout their entire supply chains to manage every part and component being used on those products.
Managing the storage and publication of data internally requires that manufacturers use powerful MRP/ERP systems capable of tracking serialized components, lots, batches and more.
This guarantees that if an issue arises in a wire product, through auditing, the affected components can be quickly found in whichever process caused them.
Containment
Knowing that parts from a specific lot, produced by a component manufacturer on a specific day goes into a specific named/serialized product guarantees that if a defect happens somewhere in the chain, a fast, reliable quarantine of affected units can be lodged. Successful and accurate removal of defective components before affecting vital life saving/sustaining equipment is absolutely necessary to reduce negative impacts on society.
The goal of higher standards aims to find all faults in all manufacturing processes before the final user receives the product because a single fail is too many.
Certifications
Certifying bodies such as CSA, UL and ISO detail specific requirements for tracking, tracing and making visible all components, quality tests performed on components and documentation of all processes, results and publications. This ensures that products delivered to any business requiring advanced reporting and visibility are in fact of that quality standard.
Mil-Spec
Due to the advanced need for higher quality components in the harsh environments experienced by military groups, a special standard was created called Mil-Spec (short for Military Specification) which defines very precise detailing on all parts used and their required manufacturing processes and results.
Mil-spec standards largely parallel the Class 3 requirements defined in the WHMA-A620-D standards, although certain circumstances require special definitions to be added by the military as issues are found.
Product Classifications
There are added cost implications attached to maintaining higher standards and reporting, which drives the costs of products higher. Proper classification of all custom products is needed during onloading of jobs to ensure adequate care is taken for critical products.
As well, there is no need to pay extra cost for your products to obtain an additional quality increase (which achieves mil-spec standard) if not required. High quality domestic OEM parts can be created without the added detail of mil-spec for cheaper, so we always audit end user application before helping customers choose whichever classification best fits the product our components go into.
We hope this article has been informational and unveils technical aspects of the advanced wire industries!