The Situation
A leading manufacturer of bike suspension components needed a performance refresh on an existing product line. Chatter and sticking of an internal independent floating piston component was identified a gating item for overall product performance. The current design was a complex 3 pc subassembly creating a manufacturing bottleneck.
The Ask
We were tasked to innovate and propose a design to:
- Improve air:oil sealing
- Reduce breakout and running friction
- Reduce BOM count from 3 to 1 component
The Solution
A double lip seal with axial stabilization features, comprising a single-piece component molded from high-performance friction modified urethane.
The Success
Our customer was able to release a product refresh featuring winning performance differentiation.
The single-piece design yielded >85% savings in BOM cost and assembly time.
Ongoing predictable seal performance is assured regardless of influences inside and outside the supply chain using Seal Performance Creep controls
