If you’re a longtime reader of Quality, you’ll have seen our Leadership 100 ranking. Every year, we take a look at the quality programs at manufacturing sites around the country. 

The Knapheide Manufacturing Company of Quincy, IL, is a leader in the North American utility truck body market, so when they adopt manufacturing and testing procedures, the industry takes note.

Current trends for quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures in metal manufacturing plants are becoming more stringent. The need for 100% measurements for alloy verification is frequently becoming part of these procedures.

Years ago, metal fabricators and quality control personnel needed to conduct expensive, time-consuming laboratory tests to perform material verification.

NDT has become a critical necessity in order to meet the demanding requirements from users of high-quality round stock bar and tube.

Measurement disputes over gage calibration continue despite the results of the studies noted in my previous column.

Two-dimensional and 3D X-ray technologies are among the most useful nondestructive testing methods. They enable the inspection of an object’s internal features without having to disassemble the sample or destroy the part in the process. 

It is a cold hard fact that steel production in Europe can hardly be made economically viable unless manufacturing facilities use the very latest equipment and technology. And there is no alternative to operating 24/7.