A MI-based tool manufacturer contacted Harman, looking for a high temp vinyl cap for coating operations. The protective cap is to prevent coating material from covering the interface ball on automobile liftgate supports. During inspection, the ball must remain free of coating material to pass. In the past, they used caps that frequently fell off, failed to protect the part every time — resulting in failed inspections. One bit of coating on the part triggers a failure of the lot.

After hearing the story, we investigated their needs and our lead engineer built a custom protective cap prototype within a day. We produced a number of hand-dipped parts to verify functionality. The test parts performed well and the tool manufacturer gave us a blanket PO for 750K annual usage. Since their prior vendor refused to ship them additional parts, the company was in a time crunch. We built the tools and produced the part within a week, enabling them to meet their production schedules.