The Problem: The phone call came on a Friday morning from a nail gun manufacturer. A piston seal used in the gun would disfigure and fail. As a result, the gun wasn’t driving the nails in all the way.
The Solution: Apple Rubber designed two different prototypes and solved the problem.
Sealing the piston with a unique groove –We faxed engineering drawings back and forth, detailing the specifics of the seal. The piston featured a unique groove, which was very sensitive to the roundness of the O-ring. The slightest disfiguring of the O-ring would cause seal failure.
A teardrop shaped cross section was part of the solution –We worked as a team over the weekend. Using our CAD system, we had the new design in no time – a teardrop shaped cross section that would give the O-ring a better structural ability to stay round.
Utilizing Apple Rubber’s exclusive ExpresSeal System℠, which can manufacture precision custom engineered seals in hours, we had two working prototypes completed by Sunday morning (two days later).
Delivering two prototypes and going one better –Prototypes in hand, our team boarded a plane and hand delivered our possible solutions the following Monday to the nail gun company. We even designed a custom-shipping container to prevent the seals from disfiguring in transport. The first prototype was made of the same material as the original O-ring, but we weren’t completely satisfied with it.
Through our research, we discovered another material that was even better suited to the high pressure of the piston – so we invested additional time and materials to offer an O-ring made of a lubricated elastomer to enhance the piston design. It was worth it.
After providing an initial order of more than 40,000 piston seals, we continued to work on additional aspects of the nail gun and on other projects including a seal for the gun’s trigger mechanism, gas compression fittings for cylinders, and seals for a variety of sensors.
One solution leads to another!