A custom-engineered test rig, designed and manufactured entirely in-house by Industrial Gas Springs, providesx fast and accurate analysis of all types of gas spring.

A custom-engineered test rig, designed and manufactured entirely in-house by Industrial Gas Springs' engineers, has been installed at the company's Mitcham, UK headquarters to provide fast and accurate analysis of all types of gas spring. Featuring purpose-designed software, which enables spring performance data to be processed quickly and accurately - the new rig has already established itself at the heart of the company's ISO 9001: 2000 quality procedures. The equipment has been designed to measure key criteria, including the loads exerted by gas springs throughout their compression and extension cycles.

As a result, it can be employed to verify friction forces on spring seals, as well as monitor a series of build quality parameters, including oil reservoir level, seal performance and even operating rod surface finish.

In addition, it will confirm the characteristics of prototype IGS units developed to meet customers' application requirements and can even be used to identify the most appropriate spring to match or exceed the performance of a competitor's product.

One of the rig's primary tasks is to determine static forces at points 5 mm from the spring's fully extended and fully compressed conditions.

These values correspond to P1 and P2, the industry-standard figures used to specify all gas springs.

'Because of the high pressure exerted by a gas spring's seals on the unit's operating rod, friction will occur whenever a spring is extended or compressed,' explains IGS' cmmercial manager, Jean-Philippe Duvillard.

'In order to determine the P1 and P2 figures accurately, the test rig has been designed to measure forces throughout a complete cycle, with the spring being compressed and released at a specified rate - as well as at a known ambient temperature,' he continues.

Measurements are recorded during the automatic test cycle by a data logger, which subsequently downloads the readings for processing by a PC.

Results can then be simply displayed on screen, or recorded in line with the requirements of Industrial Gas Springs' quality procedures.

'Since installation, the new test facility has enabled us to apply even more stringent controls to our already impressive Right-First-Time quality performance,' comments managing director, Steve Woolcock.

'We typically test IGS gas springs to more than 250,000 cycles - five times the figure of many competitors'' products! What is more, our rigorous monitoring procedures are matched by extremely close manufacturing tolerances and ISO 9001: 2000 quality standards.

Our customers can therefore have complete confidence in the performance and in-service reliability of all IGS products.' * About Industrial Gas Springs - based at Mitcham, Surrey, IGS has established a 20 year track record as Britain's leading supplier of industrial gas springs both to UK and increasingly, export markets.

The company's vast product range is applied across the widest spectrum of manufacturing industry and its in-house design, applications engineering and manufacturing capabilities are certified to ISO 9001:2000 quality standards.