Making the Best Parts Available

What goes into making a precision washer? At Phoenix Specialty Manufacturing, we produce more than 100,000 unique parts and have 400-million individual parts in stock at all times. Precision washers are just some of the many parts we make.

So how do we go about creating hundreds of thousands of parts, including washers, without sacrificing quality? How are washers made to exact standards alongside countless other parts?

In order to create the best products, you need a recipe for success. We believe that we have found the perfect method of producing quality products in large volumes. Here are a few of the secrets behind our success.

Success Stems from a History of Innovation

At Phoenix Specialty Manufacturing, we have been in business for more than 100 years. We were founded in 1907 to provide high-quality parts without compromise. Since then, we have become a leading supplier of custom parts to America’s Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and serve countless industries across the globe.

The way parts and products are manufactured has changed dramatically over the past century. New tools and machines have been developed and unique metals and materials have been formulated.

Today, as always, we use only the best machines and practices to manufacture our precision washers and other unique parts. While our specific practices are trade secrets, it’s safe to say that history and experience have helped us streamline an efficient and detail-focused process for creating custom washers.

Where It Begins

What’s at the heart of all great custom spacers and other products? Great materials. At Phoenix Specialty Manufacturing, we have more than 300 types of raw materials, in thousands of different widths, thicknesses, and tempers, available at any given time.

Once we receive a shipment of raw materials fresh from refineries and processing plants, they are added to our extensive stock of high-quality raw materials. From there, our talented Material Department will organize, track, and distribute the materials to our manufacturing facility as necessary.

It takes a great team of employees to manage the industry’s largest raw material inventory, and at Phoenix Specialty Manufacturing, our team is the best around. Our Material Department is able to take the raw materials and process them using a variety of state-of-the-art equipment:

• Our 24″ Yoder Slitting Line with over-arm separator and hydraulic push off
• 2 uncoilers
• 14 forklifts of varying capacities
• And many more

The Material Department is also responsible for inspecting all raw materials to ensure their quality. We pride ourselves on offering only the highest-quality finished products, and our dedication to quality begins with the raw materials themselves.

Machine Equipment

Once we have sorted, organized, inspected all of the raw materials we receive, the process of turning them into finished products continues. Washers come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes.

From flat metal washers used to spread a load and prevent damage to spring washers which are flexible and used prevent objects from loosening due to vibrations and movement, we can make any type of washer you need. And as you can imagine, the equipment required to make a flat washers is different than what’s required to make a spring washer.

At Phoenix Specialty Manufacturing, we have a unique machine for every application. Here are just a few of the machines we use every day:

• OBI presses
• Straight side presses
• OBS presses
• Zig-zag feeders
• Waterjets
• And more

In order to create precision washers, we need a wide variety of equipment. But variety alone does not mean quality or precision. Every machine and tool we use is the result of our 100 years of experience and years of research. Every tool we use is state of the art, many of which are unique to our facility.

Careful Inspection

After our precision washers have been fabricated on one of our high-tech machines, they must be inspected for quality and accuracy. As mentioned before, you can’t afford errors of even .0005″ when it comes to precision washers. Our calibration and inspection equipment is part of what allows us to fabricate high-quality products as quickly as possible.

In order to ensure every part we produce is of the highest quality, we have a number of unique inspection tools available. Where different precision washers require different manufacturing machines, those unique washers require specialized inspection tools as well.

Here are just a few of the machines we use to inspect every single product that rolls off of our assembly lines:

• CMMs
• Vision inspection machines
• Microscopes
• Load testers
• And a host of other measuring equipment

Shipped as Ordered

The final sequence of our manufacturing process involves packaging and shipping your precision washers. Only after they have been carefully inspected by the quality control team will your parts be packaged and ready for shipment. The entire process can be done in as little as 2 to 3 weeks, even for large custom orders (though more time might be required if your washers require an outside service). If we have what you need in stock, we can have it shipped in 24 hours or less.

While our exact methods of manufacturing precision washers will vary according to your needs, and many of our processes are trade secrets, we focus on quality every step along the way.