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Teamwork solves design problem

A Harris Springs product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 19, 2003

West Alloy, based in Morden, Surrey, has a long-established relationship with Harris Springs which has been supplying the company for the last 15 years.

West Alloy, based in Morden, Surrey, has a long-established relationship with Harris Springs which has been supplying the company with springs for the last 15 years.

West Alloy manufactures locks, hinges, window stays, catches and associated fittings for agricultural, construction and leisure vehicles.

It is a company, like Harris Springs, that is totally committed to providing its customers with the highest levels of service from concept, through design and development to final production and after-sales support.

The relationship with its suppliers is paramount to its overall success and so it looks for companies that it can trust to continually provide it with quality products, at an appropriate cost and can deliver to them when required.

As the spring is often a fundamental part of the design it is also important for West Alloy that it has suppliers that can work with it to ensure that the finished product meets and exceeds the expectations of the customer.

Harris Springs has been recognised by Brian Sugden, Managing Director of West Alloy, for its willingness and capability to provide that expert service.

"Last year we had a problem with a spring clip breaking", says Sugden.

"Working together with the Harris Springs' team we soon identified that it was due to the spring touching another part of the assembly and therefore putting too much pressure on the spring causing it to fail.

Harris Springs suggested a couple of alterations to the clip, both to do with the shape and the finish that was applied to it.

Working closely with my team and following successful trials Harris Springs have now supplied us with a solution to the problem and we are now in full production of the product".

Steve Bate, Sales Manager of Harris Springs, explains how Harris Springs tackled the problem: "'Following the meeting with the West Alloy production team we sent them an amended drawing showing the proposed changes and followed this up with an initial sample.

This we did repeatedly until the design had evolved to meet their lifecycle requirements.

The new spring surpassed all their stringent quality tests and we were given the approval to manufacture the finished component".

As a result, this successful working relationship with West Alloy has resulted in Harris Springs receiving further orders from West Alloy for flat clips, double torsion springs and a variety of compression springs.

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