PEEK Back Up Rings
One of our key customers came to us with a recurring fault on their PEEK Back Up Rings related to a critical angled cut on the product. What started as a fault investigation turned into a full review of the customer’s material specifications, and consolidated their supply chain, reducing costs. Here’s how we identified the root cause, rationalised nine material and manufacturing combinations down to a clear specification set, and became the customer’s go-to supplier for high-grade plastics and polymers.
Overview
The challenge
The customer’s PEEK Back Up Rings had a recurring fault on a key part of the angled cut on their products. The composition of the material was failing, and the customer needed to understand why before they could fix it and secure a reliable supply going forward.
Overview
How we helped
We identified the root cause which was the alignment of fibres within the glass and carbon fibre compositions. From there, we sourced a manufacturer capable of meeting the customer’s exacting material requirements and secured a continuous supply of Victrex PEEK.
While investigating the material supply issue, we noticed the customer was specifying many different material variants across the same product range. We investigated the full range of requirements and helped rationalise their specifications across three core materials: Victrex Virgin PEEK, Victrex Glass Filled 30% PEEK, and Victrex Carbon Filled 30% PEEK, paired against three manufacturing methods:Injection Moulding, Dynamic Cast Moulding, and Extrusion.
This meant obtaining material specifications that could be consistently met across each material and manufacturing method, and helping the customer match the right material to the right method based on the performance qualities each one offered.
Overview
The benefits
We helped the customer reduce their material specifications from a wide, inconsistent range down to nine clearly defined combinations, giving their engineering team a reliable reference for future builds. This also saved the customer money, since they were no longer over-specifying material grades beyond what the application environment required.
What started as a fault investigation on a single product became the foundation of a much broader relationship. The customer now sources a full range of high-grade plastics and polymers through us, moving from a single-product supplier relationship to one covering a much wider part of their material requirements. It also expanded our own range and expertise within the sector, allowing us to offer a more complete service to other customers with similar needs.
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Time to talk
If a recurring material fault or an over-complicated set of specifications is costing you time or money, we can help find the root cause and build a simplified, reliable supply chain around it. Get in touch to find out how we can help you.
Testimonials
What our customers say
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Coburns are a reliable and reactive supply chain partner, always willing and open to discuss and drive change initiatives.
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Highly recommend, knowledgeable, reliable and easy to deal with.
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Working with Coburn Fasteners is a simple and easy process. Whether you send an email or speak over the phone, nothing is inconvenient and they will do their up-most to help you. I would highly recommend Coburn Fasteners for a quote. Their fast and efficient service and delivery lead-time is excellent compared to a lot of vendors.
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Coburn Fasteners is a responsive and reliable supplier that helps SLB efficiently source off-the-shelf and buy-house items. Their support reduces the need to onboard multiple suppliers and simplifies the procurement process and help us improve work efficiency and workload management.
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When Jeremy approached us and said he could help with our kitting, it suddenly dawned on me just how inefficient our existing process had become. As our product range rapidly expanded, the time and effort involved in sourcing, designing and assembling kits in-house was becoming a real drain on the business.
