Air quality is a widely used metric in a variety of portions of our lives. Its composition, particulates, and purity are all of concern for several applications – weather services regularly measure the air in a variety of ways to gather information about our atmospheric conditions and pollution levels; hospitals monitor the quality of the air in patient rooms and “clean rooms”; manufacturing floors for the semiconductor industry are stringently measured for air quality concerns. Even something as inconspicuous as the makeup of the air we breathe can have significant implications for these and other industries.
The measurement process is a complicated procedure, and the accuracy of the measurements is crucial for a successful and useful end result. One problem that often occurs is that, for a number of reasons, the sampling tubing used can cause buildups on the walls of the tubing of the very particulates that are being measured. This can cause some wildly inaccurate readings of air quality, as the ratio of particulate to the volume of air sampled is a critical factor in these readings.
At Vanguard, we have developed some special silicone materials that help in getting accurate readings when used as part of the sampling mechanism, such as in the sampling tubing. These silicone materials have special additives in them to combat the buildup of particulate on the sampling walls through phenomenon such as static buildup. Further, these compounds are made from materials that will not add chemicals or particulate to the airstream, leading to extraordinarily accurate readings.
While it’s easy to ignore the air around us, knowing its properties and being able to regulate them affords us some pretty amazing things – the manufacture of semiconductors in your smartphone, the accuracy of information on your local weather channel, and the preservation of many old or brittle artifacts in museums, to name a few. At Vanguard, we breathe easy knowing we provide one solution in the process for air quality measurement, and have a hand in its many expansive applications.
When Hurricane Sandy pile-drove into the New York Metropolitan Area, it didn’t take much for anyone who was caught in it to realize that the night was going to be a long and potentially dangerous one. Unfortunately, those instincts were spot-on. Hurricane Sandy proved to be the worst natural disaster to befall the New York region in nearly a century (the Spanish Flu of 1918-19 being the worst “natural disaster”). Over one hundred people in the Tri-State Area alone lost their lives due to the storm. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses suffered damage from flooding and 80 mph winds; many neighborhoods also were decimated by fire. In total, the official tally of damage now amounts to an estimated $71 billion, of which $9 billion is earmarked to improve the storm protection infrastructure of the region in the event of a future disaster of this scale.
Our own facility here in Connecticut lucked out: we suffered no remarkable damage to either our property or production capability. And as many tragedies happened that day, there were an equal number of stories of resistance and resilience in the face of Nature. In fact, many homes and businesses equipped with hurricane shutters and/or floodgate systems came through the disaster in good working order. While many companies should take credit for providing protection for businesses throughout the region, we at Vanguard contributed as well by providing the gaskets and seals we extrude here at our facility to several companies that expertly manufacture hurricane and flood protection equipment used throughout public and private infrastructure to help insure no rain or water creeps (or sweeps) into a building.
Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call of sorts to New York and the surrounding environs. Hurricanes, as it turns out, are no longer simply the province of Florida, Louisiana, or the Carolinas; they can happen right here in Connecticut and they can be heartbreakingly devastating. Now that the superstorm’s fury has passed, it’s time to insure that our houses, offices, warehouses, factories, and storefronts are secure from any future danger. Meanwhile, here at Vanguard, we’ll keep working with the manufacturers that produce this high quality protection equipment and providing them with the highest quality sealing products in the industry.
At this moment on Earth, there are approximately 6 billion cell phones in operation. Of these six-odd billion, some 1.2 billion of these phones include mobile web access features. Already the mind goes into overdrive trying to comprehend the bandwidth needed for a wireless network of such dimensions. To cap it all off, with high-speed, digital 4G networks sprouting up overnight (and trans-globally), the wireless capacity of the world is ever more taxed to deliver better, faster, more broad ranging services for an ever-growing number of users. While many figures in business, politics, and academia devote their careers to tackling the long-term need of increasing capacity, there are others who are caught up in the moment-by-moment race to deliver services at the pace at which they’re demanded.
Vanguard’s Ultra-Vanshield and Microbridge EMI shieldinggaskets are ideal for providing EMI shielding and weather sealing for the base station units that are critical to providing this increased level of service. These base stations are responsible for sorting through the boggling number of wireless operations (anything ranging from speech channels, to transmissions, to pages, to clear reception) occurring at any given moment in the ether.
Base sub-stations – BSS’s – transcode the actions of millions of cell phone users and incorporate them into the greater wireless cellular network. With the level of energy surging through these base sub-stations at any given hour of the day, there’s a matching need to provide protection from both within and without: within, to ensure signal clarity and interference free operation, and without to protect the units from outside unwanted RFI interference while providing substantial weather seal protection—a critical consideration in light of the places where the BSS is physically located, quite often in areas where the climatic elements are brutal, and the units are difficult to service.
At Vanguard Products, we manufacture standard customized, weatheright seals to protect base sub stations from malfunctioning. Our materials and handiwork can be found in BSS systems throughout world in some of the most punishing outdoor environments you could name. With a reputation for military-grade reliability under all circumstances, our seals will keep your communications systems up and running far into this century.
As most of those reading this blog will already know, MD&M is the premiere conference and get-together for those in the medical device industry, whether they’re manufacturers, distributors, or end-users. The MD&M East Show taking place from May 21 – 24 in Philadelphia should prove no exception. The leading authorities in every possible medical manufacturing field – from cleanroom and sterilization, to medical grade materials, to electronic components and subassemblies, to motors, pumps, and motion control devices – will be strutting their latest products and findings at the Philadelphia Convention Center, located at 1101 Arch Street. In addition, 16 full-day conference programs will be offered to those who wish to attend them. Important discussion topics will include process validation, medical polymers, product development process, compliance, product lifecycle management, and global quality. Visitors can customize their own experience of these various topics by moving from one conference room to another.Being at the forefront of the medical manufacturing revolution (medical manufacturing itself being at the forefront of the new American “manufacturing renaissance”), Vanguard Products will be looking, as always, for new clients and partnerships with others interested in making OEM medical devices of the first caliber. With our ability to provide both rubber extrusions and customized moldings, along with our intensive familiarity in EMI/RFI shielding gaskets, conductive gaskets, and silicone materials, we hope to impart our knowledge and services to those who are most looking to use them. We look forward to meeting with you at the Convention itself, as well as the possibility of exploring Philadelphia together in the hours between presentations and exhibitions.
When given the acronym “NBC,” most Americans might be forgiven for flashing instantly to the media conglomerate that broadcasts hit shows such as “30 Rock” and the “NBC Nightly News.” But those who are in a certain line of work know an additional meaning for the acronym: “nuclear-biological-chemical.” Defense manufacturers and service-members alike realize the importance of having equipment that is resistant to the deadliest hazards of the modern battlefield.
EMI shielding is a must for military electronics in general, and insuring that the EMI shielding will perform its job in even the harshest (and most unfortunate) circumstances is one of the necessities of 21stcentury warfare. If, Heaven forbid, a tactical nuclear device were actually to be used against American forces, there would be the need for EMI shielding gasketsthat are not only proof against the blast radiation itself, but are also resistant to the powerful cleaning agents used on vehicles and equipment that have been subjected to that level of aggression.
Vanguard Products is fully capable of manufacturing such N/B/C-resistant EMI shielding gaskets. We account for everything from biological warfare to jet fuel spillage when we design our ITAR-certified custom shielding. The fact is our troops go into battle with some of the most advanced technology the world has ever seen, and that technology comes with highly specific requirements for remaining effective in the worst of conditions.
In 1990, with the Soviet Union in its death throes, it seemed high time to begin stowing away some of the tens of thousands of tons of electronics the United States military had accumulated to fight the Cold War. At least, that was the line of thinking in the first half of the year. Then, that August, Iraqi forces rolled into Kuwait, and our line of thinking had to change yet again in preparation for the First Gulf War.
As American forces began their rapid build-up to Desert Storm, a major issue came to light. The electronic equipment onboard tanks, Humvees, and mobile artillery, much of which had been corralled in storage sheds throughout the United States and West Germany, began to malfunction in the rugged desert environment. Due galvanic incompatibility, caused in many cases by inadequate EMI shielding gaskets and gasket design, the electronic enclosures on many of these items simply couldn’t withstand the environment they were subjected to, and began in many cases, just falling apart.
In short, the American military discovered what thousands of grade school science students have discovered when building their first primitive wet cell batteries: galvanic action can cause the fast sacrifice of enclosures, especially aluminum and magnesium, in tough environments. The need became apparent to develop moldings, extrusions, and EMI/RFI shielding gaskets that would allow for the American military’s high-performance, high-maintenance electronic equipment to perform at optimal level for long periods of time.
Since those days of 1991, we’ve come a long way in terms of our design-work for military electronics and, by extension, ruggedized commercial applications. At Vanguard Products we’ve fabricated any number of custom moldings, rubber extrusions, and shielding gaskets for some of the most sophisticated vehicles and weapons systems in America’s arsenal. Just ask the soldiers and marines who fought in the Second Gulf War. While it’s a given that mil-spec equipment is prone to breakage and failure in wartime (just as in peacetime), the anticipated epidemic of mechanical and electronic failures similar to the First Gulf War never materialized for the Second, at least not on the same scale. It’s because we as a country had learned our lessons from 1991. It’s because companies like Vanguard Products had applied those lessons with consideration and care to the equipment they had designed.
It was not so long ago – most likely in a majority of our lifetimes – when the highest-performance computing machines of the day took up half the space of an entire large university, corporate, or government laboratory building. Consider the goliath-sized computer of the 50s and 60s, and then compare their computational power to the touch-screen iPhone you may very well right now be holding in your hand. That iPhone holds exponentially greater levels of functionality than did those unwieldy behemoths from 50 years back. Nor does the trend need be observed from the vantage point of decades in order to be readily apparent. During the later course of this year, all the major Smartphone and computer suppliers introducing items that bear all the features and functions of the original model – but still uses a considerably smaller amount of space. It all boils down to the ever-increasing (or should we say decreasing trend) in electronics and mechanics: the miniaturization of parts, components, and applications.
From the Smartphone to the Smartcar, it seems as though the trend were endemic in most, if not all, industries. Since Vanguard makes its business both in supplying EMI/RFI gasket shielding for electronic devices, as well as more conventional extrusions and molds for silicone- and elastomer-based products (that don’t necessarily have an electrical application), we make it our business to keep current with the ongoing miniaturization process, and how it affects our industry and the business we conduct as a company.
In order for manufacturers like ourselves to remain ahead of the curve, we must anticipate the new demands for miniaturization. We must readily be able to provide EMI shields for ever smaller computers, phones, and electronic reading devices. By necessity, we must heed the so-called “Moore’s Law,” which posits that the number of transistors on any given circuit is able to double within the next 18 months. With technology moving ever more swiftly, we must ever more swiftly keep pace with its advances, and be capable of presenting solutions in anticipation of these issues as much as (if not more than) in reaction of them.
When most people hear the word, “Anaheim,” immediately they begin to think of Donald Duck, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and little else. But “Anaheim” has its own very specific connotations to Vanguard, and to many other product and materials manufacturers, assemblers, and distributors: namely, the MD & M Show, to be held this year at the Anaheim Convention Center from February 14 – 16. MD & M is the largest annual manufacturing showcase of its kind in California, and this year will doubtless prove to be no exception.
One of the key markets we’re hoping to connect with at MD & M is the medical diagnostic industry. The silicone tubing and EMIshielding gaskets we provide at Vanguard are vital to any number of high-performance pieces of medical equipment. As an example, without high-quality EMI gaskets shielding infant respiration monitors, those monitors encounter too much outside interference to register correctly.
Another such example is our ability to take a custom-molded silicone product, tweak it as is necessary, and thereby adapt it into an extruded/bonded product. Being templates, extrusions are much easier to fabricate than moldings, and are a far more cost-effective option for medical institutions to adopt.
Another reason we’re going to MD & M is for the cross-pollination factor of the event. Happening simultaneously right across the way from MD & M is Aerocon, the single largest conference and material showcase on the West Coast for the aerospace and defense industries. Just as medical monitoring equipment often requires a high-speed processor to help itself run, so do aerospace/defense applications. EMI shielding technology is essential for many types of applications from both types of industry. In short, we hope to meet, greet, and do business with representatives from both of these leading and innovative fields.
2012 is shaping up to be a significant year for American manufacturing. Statistics seem to indicate that manufacturing is recovering faster than other sectors of the US economy. We’re looking forward to MD & M (and to Aerocon) in seeing what the future has to offer. Here’s to finding great minds that think alike.
Maintenance of standards – if the standards are high enough – is most likely a sign of progress. We at Vanguard Products are very pleased to announce our recertification in accordance with ISO 9001-2008 standards for the sixth successive year, the fifth year without findings. We take this news in good stride as we enter 2012, confident that it heralds an excellent business year to come.
In order to earn an ISO 9001-2008 standard certification, a company not only must perform in accordance with its previous quality standards, but must constantly assess ways that it can improve its quality performance in the future and implement them on a continuing basis. It must also measure the effectiveness of these improvements and tweak them. In effect, a company cannot just achieve certification and “rest on its laurels.”
Firstly, one must engineer a plan of action, which – if followed correctly – can ensure successful quality management for one’s business. The plans necessarily involve meticulous bookkeeping: the standards must be clear, the quality objective guidelines must be focused, and the responsibilities of those entrusted with carrying out these quality standards must always be accurate. When it comes to selling custom manufactured engineered products, it’s a tight ship, not a leaky faucet, we’re running.
Beyond establishment of quality standards, there also lies implementation. One must effectively communicate all one’s criteria for quality throughout the company. A certified company must also be constantly aware of whichever factors are keeping one’s company at bay from its objectives. Ensuring the competent performance of company workers and managers is an absolute must. Providing the necessary infrastructure and then maintaining that infrastructure throughout the business year, are absolute necessities. If preventive measures need to be taken in order to correct the course of events, then they must be undertaken logically and without hesitation.
Communicating with clients clearly and objectively is – without a doubt – the absolute necessity of necessities. Customers must feel engaged and knowledgeable about the goods and services one is providing them, and must also regularly remain informed of any late-breaking updates in those products and services. In the end, customers must be satisfied that all their requirements were met, and, whenever possible, exceeded.
These are merely to sketch a few outlines of what it takes to be ISO 9001-2008 certified. From our humble beginnings in the 1960’s, our reputation has been centered around providing a package of the highest quality, precision, technical expertise, and service in the industry at competitive prices. We’re proud we’ve achieved this certification six years in a row. Here’s looking forward to a seventh.
Like it or not, the world is permeated with man-made electromagnetic interference (EMI). Power cables and signal lines, high speed electronics, antennae and ground connections have tallied up to produce a noisy can negatively affect the day-to-day performance of the sensitive electronics we depend upon daily. Now, add to these factors the raw harshness of the elements year-in and year-out. Salt fog and moisture combined with commonly used enclosure materials such as aluminum and magnesium can make for a challenging combination when coupled with the need for a high performance EMI shielding gasket. You can see how electronic equipment wears down as fast and furiously as it sometimes does, or, worse yet, it may never make it out of the approval process into production due to test failure for these factors.
It’s almost obvious that the great outdoors can put a damper on high-tech applications. Vanguard Products Corporation has been working on this challenge for quite some time. Since the 1980’s, we’ve been testing, perfecting, and manufacturing EMI shielding gaskets fitted for rugged terrain and punishing weather, all while providing the highest level shielding performance possible. Our extensive development efforts have yielded two unique approaches to the challenge of dual function EMI/weather sealing gaskets: our dual elastomer ULTRA-VANSHIELD ® gaskets and our newest addition, our dual elastomer MICROBRIDGE® gaskets. Both of these approaches protect against the wind, rain, and moisture all while providing the highest level of EMI shielding available.
A great deal of thought has gone into the design of the ULTRA-VANSHIELD ® and the MICROBRIDGE® products. Each style of shielding gasket features high performance component materials. The ULTRA-VANSHIELD® product features a continuously extruded, high-strength silicone rubber core, and a co-extruded highly conductive metal-filled silicone layer which can be paired galvanically to your enclosure material to reduce galvanic action, and manufactured in a configuration that allows for a non-conductive environmental sealing portion to be oriented outbound to eliminate dust and/or moisture to filter onto the conductive EMI shield or into the electrical components. The MICROBRIDGE® products take this approach even further by incorporating a secondary weatherseal on the interior of the gasket as well, completely isolating the conductive portion from galvanic accelerants. Both approaches allow for all this functionality in a cost effective, single piece package.
It’s been a long road from conceptualization to manufacturing these products, but the results speak for themselves with their high performance properties.
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