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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Working at the Speed of the Customer Drove Putco’s Million-dollar Deal

With the help of: Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS)

About

Located in Des Moines, Iowa, Putco Inc. is a 50-year-old designer, distributor, and manufacturer of high-quality automotive and truck accessories.

The Challenge

Putco needed to evaluate the porosity of an aluminum vehicle part in a matter of days to secure a large contract. Putco had put out inquiries to private contractors to do industrial X-rays of cast aluminum units that it had purchased. They wanted to make sure these items met quality standards. All metal castings have some degree of imperfection, but with these, it was important to document that they didn’t have significant porosity that would compromise strength in critical regions. CIRAS, part of the MEP National Network™, was the first to respond with a plan. 
We were in a pickle, and CIRAS had visited us a couple of times, so we reached out to them. It’s paid off.
— Nick Niemeyer, Engineer

MEP's Role

CIRAS tested the pieces from Putco using its in-house x-ray equipment to generate a 3D-like file, computed tomography. This file can be manipulated to display virtual slices of the parts for evaluation, similar to a medical CT scan. With this testing information, Putco secured a contract that increased sales by a million dollars retained another million in existing sales, and allowed the manufacturer to retain two positions.

Created July 17, 2024