At RD Industries we sell safety. It is of paramount importance therefore that quality control and safety checks are put in place to ensure that we consistently deliver on our company promise of ‘keeping every container safe’.

Our products prevent people from getting chemical burns, they save companies millions of dollars every year, and they help towards protecting the planet through sustainable manufacturing and recyclable end products. So how do we ensure that superior quality is consistently produced and delivered on the products we sell? Scott Neuhalfen, Director of Quality and Safety at RD Industries talks us through a few of our implemented procedures.

IN-LINE QUALITY CONTROL

Automation has been an inevitable part of our manufacturing evolution and continues to be a focus for the future.  Automation eliminates human error which, when you are producing products with so many varying components with a ±.003” tolerance, this in itself is the first step for improving quality.

With automation, in-line quality control becomes a necessary part of the transition where the quality and safety checks are made within the production line as the product is created.  At RD Industries, we use cameras and pressurised air tests to complete quality checks as the product goes through the manufacturing process.

We have a high mix of product types and sizes which require a large number of components to create a final product.  Cameras strategically placed along the production line ensure the correct components are in place for assembly, eliminating any concern of component cross contamination between products. They are programmed to scan for the correct components, if there is a defect, the part is rejected.

Pressurized air tests detect for missing components and faulty seals.  The components for bottle inserts need to be totally sealed within an inner chamber. Air is run over every insert manufactured. If air is able to flow through the insert, there is a defect and the part will be rejected. A build-up of pressure on the other hand will confirm the system is closed, sealed and complete.

 

OFF -LINE QUALITY CONTROL

Large investments have also been made in the off-line quality checks. The Keyence Vision has vastly improved the speed and quality of the readings we are able to get for the random quality checks that run 24/7 when production is running.  Again, the elimination of human error is key and the increased number of readings we are able to get from a single unit is worth its weight in gold – we are able to tell in an instant where we need to make changes which might be to speed things up or adjust the temperature – there are many contributing factors that can change the quality and volume of what we are producing and the Keyence Machine allows us to determine what factor that is if there is a problem.

RD Industries offer 32 dilution rates of metering tips. These run at a ±0.001 tolerance and we 100% optically test these for quality. Made from Kynar, we can safely say we produce the most accurate metering tips for dilution in the industry.

All our cap adapters and equipment pieces e.g. the Portable Dispensing Units, Wall Dispensers re all hand tested with water to check that they are not filling with air or leaking.  We continue to work towards creating an automated solution, but for now this is still a manual process demonstrating the importance of our quality – every product is tested before it leaves the building.

As you can see, quality control is an essential part of our manufacturing process at RD Industries – it gives our customers and end users peace of mind that they are using a superior quality product that will protect them, will offer accurate dilution and offer protection during transportation as we continue to make the world a safer place.