Quality Assurance
Industry-leading performance could not be achieved without rigorous quality assurance being integrated into every aspect of our production and company. At PPCP, Quality Assurance is both a process and a way of doing business. From start to finish, in each step of production, every team member makes it a top priority to maintain excellent quality and deliver exact specifications. This is central to PPCP’s corporate culture and guiding principle for our company.
VisionCast
We use a sophisticated system developed in-house called VisionCast to carefully manage all process steps, documentation and training in our facility. VisionCast clearly demonstrates to every production employee how each individual part is to be made as it moves through all of the departments and steps in the process. The power of our system is in its clarity of instructions and ease of use. Digital imagery is used to graphically show the process along with written content. The system operates in real time on the shop floor, providing workers with exactly the information they need when they need it. Specific customer expectations can be included for each part made, such as photographs of castings in actual use, to provide context to the production staff. The first screen for each casting made is a general screen, showing an image of the casting along with important information. The screen displays the customer part number, our internal PPCP number, drawing number and revision, alloy, casting weight and any revisions that have been made to the process. The revision tracking is essential to ensure that we have frozen a process in place that will not deviate from order to order. Any changes that are made are documented and dated with the reason for the change.
The next several screens document what needs to be accomplished in each department in order to transform raw materials into a completed casting.
In the wax room, we document the wax weight, injection machine to be used, pressure and time settings, and any specialized instructions that need to be noted.
The assembly screens show employees the size and configuration of the setup as well as spacing requirements on the sprue. The assembly screens also show a photo of what the setup will look like when properly completed.
The Dip Department screens provide operators with information on the number of ceramic coats, dry times and specific information about creating the shell for each individual part.
The Melting Department provides the weight of metal that is poured into a shell, exact temperature at which the steel must be poured, and spacing of shells in the sand bed.
assurance process are key differentiators
that separate us from our competitors.
Very few foundries have a system that can
compare. We have made a serious investment
in these systems to ensure that the job
gets done right the first time. It’s all part
of the PPCP Advantage.
