What are the process steps a tap undergoes before it reaches the consumer?
The tap gives us the ability to control water, the vital element to which we dedicate an entire room in our home and without which we could not satisfy our hygiene and personal care needs. Born in Roman times, it has constantly evolved to reach today's technological and quality standards, which are even more demanding in the public and commercial sector. This is why Idral S.p.a. is committed to developing taps that guarantee maximum reliability and performance.
But what characteristics must a tap meet in order to reach its installation site? What processes must it undergo and what tests must it pass?
Every Idral tap faces different production processes and various tests during its development. We can divide them into 3 groups for controls and another 3 for processes.
CONTROLS
- Control of raw materials: these arethe checks that certify the goodness of the materials, so that there is a guarantee of correct performance of the parts and compliance with the standards for contact with drinking water, necessary to certify our products in the world market.
- Dimensional checks: all the measurements and measurements that guarantee the correct appearance and dimensional compliance of all components, so that they can be assembled correctly and perform homogeneously and consistently.
- Performance checks: functional/performance tests in air or water or aesthetic tests that promote the product to the next production stage or to sale.
PRODUCTION PROCESSES
- Manufacturing: the basic processes of production give shape to ideas and are always found at the beginning of the realisation of a component. The main processes we can encounter are: casting, hot moulding, injection moulding, die casting, sintering, drawing.
During this phase and depending on the production process, at least two of three controls are carried out. Raw material and dimensional checks are always carried out, and performance checks only if the process requires it. - Machining: this usually lies between Manufacturing andAssembly and transforms raw components into finished components. The main machining operations encountered in the tap industry are: turning, bending, welding, polishing, chrome plating.
The checks foreseen in this phase are Dimensional Checks and Performance Checks , while raw material checks are only performed if there is an addition of material to the basic component, such as welding, which involves an addition of alloy to join the components.
ASSEMBLY
Assembly is the process dedicated to the operations required to put together the various parts, whether pre-assembled or individual. It can be automatic or manual depending on the form and function of the product.
The controls involved in this phase are Dimensional Controls and Performance Controls . In this phase Idral S.p.a. tests 100% of the products guaranteeing all their functionality.
AN EXAMPLE
It is difficult to establish exactly the total number of checks an Idral tap must pass in order to be able to say "I AM READY!", but we can make an indicative average calculation. Let's take as a reference the Idral Electronic Mixer Art. 02512, composed of 27 componentsthat must pass the three production processes (Manufacturing, Processing, Assembly). Each of these components must pass a minimum of 2 checks in each process (Raw Material Check, Dimensional Check, Performance Check).
(27 components x 3 processes) x 2 checks = 162 Quality checks
162 Quality controls to guarantee Reliability, Resistance, Quality to a product capable of satisfying the needs of the large community and high-traffic sites.
Idral S.p.a is the name that has been meeting your demands since 1970.