The carbon-steel spark plug tube demonstrates how our advances in barrel plating technology has given us the edge in superior quality finishes that provide consistent, cost-effective solutions to some of the automotive industry’s most problematic applications.
Formerly supplied by our competitor, Ford’s Tier 1 supplier decision to resource the spark plug tube created an opportunity for Elm Plating to become the new exclusively approved plating supplier. Our ability to develop process improvements and then clearly and technically articulate these improvements was the reason we were selected as the new supplier. Since 2011, we have plated over 43,000,000 of these tubes, affording our customer a reduction in their cost-of-quality by virtue of our excellent quality and delivery performance. With a zinc thickness of 8-12 µm followed by a 0.5-1.0µm sealer, the salt spray performance of this process exceeds (400) hours to red rust! Finally, though the volume is extremely high, we drop-ship this part directly to our customer’s customer on a 5-day turn basis, savings $1,000s in transportation costs by avoided the trip back to our customer’s plant.
This truly is a success story in terms of business collaboration between the (3) primary suppliers to Ford Engine Assembly, and one that we are extremely proud.
