2011 marks the 50th year in business for John Guest – a significant milestone for one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high quality push-fit fittings. Remaining a family owned business, the West Drayton-based company supply its comprehensive range of products to a wide variety of demanding industries, including the automotive, plumbing, drinks dispensing, pneumatic and fibre optic markets.

Since the early 1960s when Mr Guest opened his factory gates for the first time, the manufacturing sector has witnessed many significant changes. However, John Guest remains steadfast to the founder’s principles of ensuring the delivery of the best quality products at a cost-effective price. In addition to the company’s unfaltering quality/cost philosophy, a major factor in John Guest’s success is the ongoing, innovative work of the company’s prolific R&D department which has enabled the launch of a multitude of commercially successful products that have allowed the company to expand its offerings, not only into its traditional markets, but also into many other industrial and technical sectors.

In addition to investment in advanced manufacturing technology, John Guest make regular purchases of state of the art quality control and material testing equipment. A case in point is the company’s recent purchase of an advanced EW-650 hardness tester from Bowers Metrology. With the advanced digital tester now in regular use, Colin Finch, team leader of the Production Engineering Inspection Department, explains the reasons behind the recent purchase.

“As the quality of our output is of paramount importance, we operate a stringent quality control regime throughout all stages of manufacture, from the goods-inward raw material stage, through in-process manufacturing checks, to final inspection. In addition to the obvious dimensional and pressure checks, we pay particular attention to the quality of the raw materials used and any perceived changes that may occur through the course of the manufacturing process.”

He continues: “As part of our continuous improvement practice, we decided to upgrade our advanced material hardness testing capability. Although we have had excellent service from our previous Bowers hardness tester, in addition to the offerings from Bowers and mindful of the possible advancements in hardness testing technology, we considered other manufacturers models in our search for a replacement.

“Having evaluated each of the testers that we deemed most appropriate to our needs, we found Bowers’ EW-650 Digital Rockwell Hardness Tester to be the ideal unit for our needs, and in view of the excellent service provided by our previous Bowers model, recently made the purchase. Now in regular use, the tester is used across a wide range of company hardness testing procedures, including the checking of materials and components that have been hardened offsite. The machine is also proving useful for undertaking sample tests on incoming bar stock and on semi-finished products.”

Featuring a robust cast frame with a generous working space to help accommodate bulky specimens, the EW-650 is able to measure in all standard Rockwell hardness scales and provides simultaneous conversions to HV, HB and a range of other scales.

Bowers claims that the new bench tester’s long list of advanced facilities belies its low price. The unit’s list of features includes a motorised load application system, a Heidenhain depth measuring transducer, automated measuring procedures and a high speed preload facility.

The EW-650’s easy to use, touchscreen operating panel and user-friendly menu gives access to storage of 50 test programmes, alpha/numeric data entry, online statistics, storage of 20,000 single hardness values, a go/no go mode, a built-in printer and a bi-directional USB2 connector enabling communication with computers and SPC devices.

Bowers Metrology
www.bowers.co.uk