Accuride’s Engineering & Quality Expertise
The core competencies upon which we have developed and maintained Accuride’s great quality can be categorised into two groups: Know-How, which provides the technical expertise and knowledge that creates long-lasting engineered solutions and opportunities for our customers, and Up-Time, the company-wide values of precision, efficiency and quality that make us a reliable and trusted partner.
Know-How Competencies
Our Know-How competencies make up one half of the core proficiencies upon which Accuride is built and can be further divided into the following three areas: engineering expertise, manufacturing methods, and innovation/problem solving.
Our talented teams of engineers are made up of mechanical, electronics, manufacturing and application design specialists who all uphold the priorities of our founders – precision and innovation. This comprehension of engineering benefits our customers in the quality of our products and the innovative features that we can offer. Our engineers also serve customers with large, specialised projects, providing them tooling and production knowledge for custom solutions.
With over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space worldwide, we have the production capabilities and prototyping competencies to create our slides internally. We have one of the largest electroplating operations in North America, which was created internally by one of our very own innovative engineers – our engineering expertise doesn’t just stop at slide design!
The founders of Accuride were experts in tooling, dies, and metal stamping before they started the company, which proved to be a competitive advantage when producing precision drawer slides. We may use different manufacturing methods to create our slide members now, but we continue to employ progressive dies and transfer dies to create specific components.
Nowadays, the majority of Accuride slides are roll-formed, which is the process of feeding flat strips of metal through a series of rollers to gradually create the desired shape through different bends. This process allows us to create slide members quickly without sacrificing the great quality we have become renowned for.
As manufacturers and engineers, we are natural innovators and problem solvers, always keeping an eye out for undeveloped markets that require a solution. In addition to our demonstrated history of innovative products, we provide long-lasting and reliable slides for the most challenging engineering problems. This enables Accuride to produce off-the-shelf products that provide solutions to a wide variety of customers, going far beyond the traditional kitchen drawer.
Up-Time Competencies
Our company-wide values of precision, efficiency and quality are the pillars that support our Up-Time competencies, which include reliability, rigid & stable designs, a flexible supply chain and technical support.
Reliability is one of the fundamental values that establishes trust, and ours is demonstrated through the quality of our products and our strength as a business partner. Our experience in the industry allows us to create well-designed products, and this focus on quality builds trust with our customers through our distributors. Our worldwide presence allows us to provide our technical support to any and all of our customers across the globe, meaning we can be there when you need us.
Our engineering expertise and manufacturing methods allow us to create a high-quality product, and we have the certifications and testing capabilities to prove it. We are certified by BHMA (Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association), AWI (Architectural Woodwork Institute), KCMA, SEFA, and ISO 9001 (International Standards Operation). Our certifications not only prove our own high standards of quality but also reassure our customers that they are meeting the relevant standards that they follow themselves.
We carry out static load and dynamic load testing on our products, as well as vibration testing, which simulates transportation vibration conditions, and salt spray testing, which determines the corrosion resistance of a slide. Our extensive testing capabilities provide our customers with the confidence that our slides will work as intended in the proposed application.
Our flexible supply chain features a variety of shipping programs for distributors, including our Quick Ship program for certain products. By working with multiple vendors to source our materials and components, we make sure that disruptions do not have a negative effect on our customers and save them from unnecessary expenses. As our products are used across the globe, we ensure a flexible supply chain between our vendors, our partners and us through our global network of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution.
All of our competencies and expertise allow us to provide our technical support services. From advising customers who want to design their project with Accuride slides right from the beginning to helping with a slide that we produced 30 years ago, our ability to provide this technical support stems from our Know-How competencies and our limited lifetime warrantee.
