Continuous improvement through testing. That is one of the keystones of our system.

Not random testing, either. At Sheppard, our goal is to provide finite-element results and test values for every single component. To optimize your product's engineering, we have to be able to predict failure and verify our findings.

Since we see testing as a major avenue to product improvement, we test every single part of our product to failure. We conduct life criteria and endurance testing in our various labs. Then, we field test, analyze results, modify procedures, redesign, and start testing all over again.

We are also continually researching new materials, processes, and verification techniques.

As part of our Continuous Improvement Program, we recently designed and built our own Research and Development Center to accommodate the many varied testing procedures we require of our assembled products.

All test equipment is designed and fabricated by engineering to our tough specifications for both actual and field testing. It is also available to create unique test applications for our customers, to help them determine whether their product has the optimum design for its intended function.

We conduct life cycle testing and relate those results to actual road mileage. We torture test to total failure. Then we go beyond that. Way beyond.

For instance, in our truck steering gears, we set our endurance testing to Australian road standards, the toughest in the world.

We heat and cold test steering gears to work at 250 degrees Fahrenheit to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. We subject them to salt spray testing and ozone damage testing. We even test the oil, the seals, and the O-rings -- all components -- under the most demanding environmental extremes.

No one exceeds our degree of testing... for each and every part in an assembly. For example, in our new electronics lab, we conduct strain gauging to measure the distortion of parts and the stress created by that distortion. We then compare those findings with our original finite-element analysis model.

All parts are serialized, bar-coded, and all testing data is stored in our mainframe.

The benefit? Total verification. Total confidence on your part. And total evolutionary integrity.

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