The Challenge
TRW experienced a variety of failures from these various "off-the-shelf" catalogue threaded plugs, including inadequate sealing, insufficient heat tolerance/resistance and structural weakness. Polyethylene and polypropylene plugs were unable to withstand paint-oven temperatures of 350°F. This required the customer to "replug" using metal caps for the oven process, and replacing plugs once again for subsequent operations, adding excessive labor and material to manufacturing costs. Aluminum plugs were found to "blow out" of castings in paint ovens due to air pressure build-up inside the assembly, resulting in additional scrapping and reworking.

Regardless of material, the threaded plugs allowed water and cleaning solutions to leak into the castings during prewash, and also deformed under the weight of stacking during shipping. The company was faced with rejecting an unacceptable number of parts, and customer complaints increased.

The Viking Solution
Viking Plastics engineers carefully evaluated each performance criterion in designing a new threaded plug for the steering gear assemblies. Using a high-temperature, high-strength material capable of withstanding the rigors of paint ovens and stacking weights, Viking added trepanned o-rings to its new design to provide an absolute seal during prewash. The plug delivers "real" seal and protection of internal assembly components, retains its integrity under paint oven temperatures and pressures and easily accommodates excessive stacking weights during shipping.

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