How do you source a gasket supplier? While buyers often have many sources of supply to choose from, individual gasket suppliers can vary greatly in their experience, materials availability, product quality, and responsiveness to customer needs. This blog presents helpful guidance for choosing a gasket supplier that will be fully aligned with your procurement needs.
Material Selection and Experience
For many buyers, a key selection criterion will be choosing a supplier that stocks a wide variety of materials. This will ensure that the vendor can supply gaskets which service a wide array of applications, including those that involve standard and aggressive media. Choosing a gasket supplier who is able to provide a wide range of materials will help reduce procurement time and search costs, thereby streamlining the buying process and establishing a “one-stop shopping” source for your gasket needs.
A second consideration for many buyers will be the experience and expertise level of a supplier. Experienced suppliers can provide specialized guidance and support to help solve most sealing problems and challenges, and these suppliers will be set up to provide superior customer care throughout the buying process. Customer care can be a particularly important capability to consider, as many buyers require gaskets to be custom produced to their own unique specifications and requirements. Suppliers who are setup to provide a high level of customer care are those who have implemented robust processes for handling customized product requests from buyers.
Technology and Responsiveness
A third consideration in supplier selection is to evaluate the manufacturing technology which a vendor uses. Small “garage-type” operations may still produce gaskets using old die-cutting technology, such as clicker or beam presses. While these technologies can produce satisfactory gaskets, they lack the high precision and efficiency of newer CNC technologies such as waterjet, flex/flash, or rotary cutting. These newer technologies can produce gaskets with superior finish and tolerances, and with much greater efficiency and speed across both small and large production runs. Choosing a supplier who invests in the latest technology can pay dividends in terms of product quality, lead times, order size flexibility, and price.
Finally, many buyers of gaskets today are sensitive to a supplier’s ability to respond and deliver to tight deadlines. This is particularly important today when many companies are “leaning out” their MRO inventories in the pursuit of greater efficiency and lower costs. For these companies, choosing suppliers with a quick response capability, including emergency service if required, is a key to enabling “lean” MRO.
At Canada Rubber Group Inc. (CRGI), we pride ourselves on our portfolio of advanced capabilities. These capabilities include our wide range of performance materials from leading manufacturers such as Teadit and American Biltrite, our latest-generation CNC production equipment, and our industry-leading responsiveness and quick order turnaround. These capabilities, allied with our 25-plus years of experience and service to a wide variety of industries, make us a preferred choice as a gasket supplier among buyers.
To find out more about how CRGI can meet your gasket sourcing needs, please contact our sales department at crg@canadarubbergroup.com.