If you’ve been in the business as long as we have – and we’ve been in the business of providing customers in industry and in the commercial sector, as well as hundreds of thousands of private customers, with machines, measuring equipment, IR cameras and bespoke solutions in the field of dehumidification, ventilation, heating and climate control for the best part of 20 years now – you will have also had your fair share of positive and negative experiences, promises that were kept and promises that were broken, and assurances and guarantees that either turned out to be worth little more than the paper they were printed on or nothing more but a lot of hot air.
So when a new supplier contacted our purchasing department claiming that their company would be able to supply us with specially manufactured, heat resistant air discharge hoses that were designed to transport hot air up to a temperature of 100C we were naturally very interested but nonetheless – well – a little cautious. Because although such hoses would be excellently suited for use with our wide range of electric and oil heaters, and would complement our existing range of air hoses very nicely, the proof of the pudding – as the saying goes – is in the eating.
And because we are committed to providing you with the best possible quality at the best possible price, all the products and accessories which make up our extensive portfolio are subjected to rigorous and comprehensive testing before they receive the Trotec seal of approval. In this particular case this meant that sample hoses which we had been sent were passed on to our Product Management Department with the explicit request that our team of dedicated engineers carry out the appropriate tests to determine whether the hoses were as good as they were made out to be.
Which is why our team of experts popped the hoses into an oven.
Although the approach which our product management team decided to take might seem a trifle – let’s say – eccentric or unorthodox, it was in fact a decidedly effective, reliable and no-frills way of determining whether the hoses could stand up to the heat which they would be subjected to under real conditions and whether they did exactly what it says on the tin.
Of course the oven they used was not the type of oven most of us use to cook a meal or bake a cake in. The ovens our lab technicians use are specially designed ovens which can be finely adjusted and controlled and which have been built to withstand far greater temperatures.
First the temperature in the oven was set to 60C. After the hoses had been in the oven for a fixed period, they were once again subjected to close scrutiny to see how they had responded to this tentative increase in temperature. The result was extremely positive. So positive in fact that we decided to skip the smaller increments and increase the temperature first to 95C and then to 105C, temperatures that very close to and also above the mark that our supplier had said that they had been designed to cope with.
And to our great satisfaction the hoses maintained their form, showed no signs of stress or strain and continued to make an overall excellent impression on the members of our seasoned and experienced team.
Only when the temperature was increased to 120C did the hoses start to show signs of fatigue, which is a pretty good and definitely acceptable tolerance level for a product which is guaranteed to be able to withstand temperatures of 100C.
In conclusion it can be said that the air discharge hoses which our new supplier supplied us with passed the first batch of tests with flying colours and now have a very good chance of complementing our range of precision crafted and excellently priced products. And it also goes to show that you really can believe some of the claims that some of the people make.
But there’s no harm in checking just to make extra sure, now is there?
Trotec. High Quality. Low Price.
