Our Innovative Design Process

The Idea

Ideas for Kendall Howard products come from many different sources. From end user feedback and reseller needs to that crazy idea jotted down on a napkin. Ideas are frequently discussed among sales, customer service representatives, and engineers as to feasibility, and user demand. Once the idea has been agreed upon it has now become a concept.

Revising the concept

The next stage is to take the concept to the end user. If the response is positive, our design engineers begin the task of digitizing the concept into a real 3D computer model. Again user groups are asked to review the end product and it is rated on aesthetics, usability, and consumer demand.

Here comes the product!

The final stage is to create the prototype. Once again we bring the product to the consumer to be rated. If we did our jobs right, we have just created another innovative design available only from Kendall Howard.

Off to Production

Once a product has been released to production, it will follow many paths and machining stations. The majority of our products will begin here at one of our laser cutting machines or one of our CNC turret punch press machines. Watching these machines take raw metal and turn them into flat versions of our products is truly an amazing site.

Picky Picky

Laser and CNC Turret machines can hold tolerances of .001 thousandths of an inch. That's one quarter the size of a human hair! Do we need it to be that precise? Well, do you want the best product possible? We thought so...

Inspection Inspection Inspection

Every step of the production process is monitored by the inspection department. Using tools such as the MetalSoft parts scanner, products can be checked against the exact cad file to look for even the smallest machine error.

Operator Verification

No matter how many times one of our products are run, every part is checked and rechecked by the operators to make sure our products are consistently top of the line quality.

We've got the bends!

If you have ever read any Kendall Howard Product Data Sheets, then you know how we pride ourselves in our forming operations. Virtually every product is made one part at a time in each machine with operators dedicated to making every product flawless. Taking the time to coin each bend for added strength with over 35 Amada CNC break presses at our disposal there is never a shortage of bending power.

Its all coming together

Once the raw parts have been punched or lasered and all bending operations have been completed, its off to the welding department for structural and aesthetics welding.

The Hard Facts

Hardware is one of the most important features that our products have. We use only the best Pem and American made hardware components. Again we have the ability to run most parts through CNC hardware machines assuring that every piece gets the right hardware in the right place.

The Final Voyage

We talked a lot about automated CNC this and CNC that, but the reality is that every single product must be touched by individual operators. There are some things that machines just can't do as well as the dedicated employee can. We take pride in the products that we produce and each operator puts their stamp of approval on their operation before it can ever go to the next stage in the production process.

Hang your Coat Here

One of the last steps in the production process is the coating process. Here we custom paint or coat our products with everything from the familiar Black Powder coat to brilliant zinc, copper and magnesium coatings. We would love to show you the process but our procedures are just too far ahead of our competition to allow us to be that open with our process.

Finally a Rest

Well, not for long, once our products have been manufactured they are moved into our warehousing facility where your items are packed, stuffed, boxed, wrapped and handled with care. All products are shipped direct to the end user and are available with or without the Kendall Howard branding.

That's all Folks

We hope you have enjoyed taking a quick look at how we take an idea from concept to the final product and then to your door. If you have any questions about our products or processes, please feel free to contact your Kendall Howard Representative at 651-213-1333

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