Corporate Capability of Taylor Devices, Inc.

Taylor Devices, Inc. incorporated in 1955, is the leading manufacturer of Shock Absorbers, Liquid Springs, Shock Isolation Systems, Seismic Isolators, Vibration Dampers, Powerplant Snubbers, and other types of Hydro-Mechanical Energy Management Products. Our products form the cutting edge of technology in our marketplace, and are backed by our 40+ years of successful experience in the shock and vibration control field.

Design Evolution of the Taylor Devices Shock Absorber, Damper, and Liquid Spring

During his ten years of experience as an Aeronautical Engineer for Beech Aircraft and Curtiss-Wright, our founder, Mr. Paul H. Taylor, became aware of the work of Sir George Dowty in the field of fluid compressibility, and of similar work by Amagot, Constaninesco, and Bridgeman.

These early studies of compressibility phenomena led to the development of various compressible material devices during Mr. Taylor's tenure as Vice President, Research, of the Wales-Strippit Corporation, a machine tool manufacturer. This included a mass produced liquid spring. Over 20,000 of these were built and sold for commercial uses for dies, aircraft, ordnance, etc., during the early 1950's.

In 1955, Mr. Taylor formed Taylor Devices, Inc. for the purpose of developing an original aircraft liquid spring landing gear design which combined a spring and shock absorber into a single package. Variations of this basic product provided a pure shock absorber, a double acting damper, and a pure liquid spring. Special machines were developed to automate the production of ultra-finished bores having a half millionth of an inch surface finish (.5 micro inch), essential to the proper performance of these early, super-precision, hydraulic components.

In 1962, Mr. Taylor filed for patents on what is now the Teflon® sealed, rod type, liquid spring-damper, which was the first new type of liquid spring design in over 30 years. By 1972, Taylor Devices had manufactured over 500,000 liquid springs and liquid spring dampers utilizing the Teflon® seal design. This seal has been improved upon, with the associated improvement patents, to the point that millions of cycles of totally leak-free operation can be achieved without the need of maintenance or seal replacement.

In addition to Teflon®, other structural plastics are often used in manufacturing seals to meet specific customer requirements such as nuclear radiation resistance, high vacuum, or operation in environments containing caustic substances.

As a parallel program, an improved low pressure seal design was also produced, proving the basis for standard commercial shock absorber and damper designs where conventional hydraulic seals had proven to be inadequate due to leakage.

In the 1970's, patents were issued on the Taylor Devices' Fluidic Damping System, the first major technical improvement in shock absorber design since 1927.

By 1990, production of Taylor Shock Absorbers and Liquid Springs was well over 2.5 million units. More than 750,000 units were used as automobile bumper shock absorbers in the 1973-1976 model years. To date, over 90 U.S. Patents in the field of compressible fluid technology have been issued to members of the firm. The superior design qualities and reliable operation of Taylor Liquid Springs, Liquid Spring Shocks and Shock Absorbers are well known throughout the world.

Taylor Devices' long history as a supplier of critical shock isolation components to the United States Government spans four decades.

Some major armed forces programs utilizing energy management components of Taylor Devices include:

1. Arresting Gear, Navy F-8 and A-7 Aircraft
2. Shock Isolation System, NASA Apollo Program
3. Arresting Gear, Navy S-3 Aircraft
4. Shock Isolation System, Army Skycrane Helicopter
5. Shock Isolation System, Navy PHALANX Gun
6. Shock Isolation System, NASA Space Shuttle
7. Energy Absorber, Navy MK 86 Antenna
8. Energy Absorber, Navy MK 88 Antenna
9. Energy Absorber, Navy MK 92 Antenna
10. Energy Absorber, Navy SPS 49 Antenna
11. Shock Isolation System, Navy Terrier Missile
12. Energy Absorber, NATO Seasparrow Missile
13. Energy Absorber, Army and Marines TOW-Cobra Missile
14. Shock Isolation System, Navy VLS Tomahawk Missile
15. Shock Isolation System, Navy and DEA Soft Mount Guns
16. MX Missile, Shock Isolation System, MPS Basing Mode
17. MX Missile, Shock Isolation System, CSB Basing Mode
18. MX Missile, Shock Isolation System, DBWS Basing Mode
19. B-2 Stealth Bomber, Classified Application
20. Seawolf Submarine, Classified Application
21. Shock Isolation System, NATO VLS Sparrow Missile
22. Shock Isolation System, Navy Standard Missile, Block IV
23. Active Shock Isolation System, Army THAADS Missile

These are major programs; a host of smaller programs also utilize Taylor Devices' components.

Taylor Devices Facilities

Taylor Devices currently has five production facilities located in North Tonawanda, New York. Four of the five buildings are located on a 7 acre tract on Tonawanda Island, located 1,000 feet offshore from the mainland on the Niagara River. The island is serviced by a two lane highway bridge. Personnel and air cargo access is available through the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport at Buffalo, New York, located 20 minutes from North Tonawanda. Private aircraft access is provided by both the Buffalo International Airport and the airport at Niagara Falls, New York. The Niagara Falls International Airport is located 15 minutes from North Tonawanda.

Facilities consist of the following:

1. Two interconnected production plants, designated as "Small Manufacturing" and "Large Manufacturing."
2. A seismic damper assembly plant, capable of producing individual seismic protection devices up to 45 feet in length.
3. A research and development center, housing the research affiliate of Taylor Devices.
4. A repair and bonded storage facility, located on the North Tonawanda mainland. This building currently accommodates a depot level repairs facility for Taylor Devices' military products.

To maintain absolute quality assurance, all production plants report to a common Quality Control Department, Test Department, and Engineering staff. Each plant maintains its own assembly staff.

Small Parts Manufacturing

Configured to produce all Taylor products that are less than two inches in diameter; the Small Parts Division includes a complete small machine shop and tool room, with a separate assembly and pre-test room. Assembly of space qualified products is performed in a controlled atmosphere clean room, with a laminar flow assembly bench certified to Class 100 requirements of U.S. Federal Standard 209E.

1. Manual lathes include six machines by Hardinge, Clausing, LeBlond, etc., used for turning, boring and milling.
2. Semi-automatic lathes include two Hardinge Chuckers and an Eldorado Gun Drill.
3. Computer Numeric Control turning capability is provided by three Hardinge CNC Turning Centers (1983, 1992 and 1996) all with automatic bar feed, utilizing FANUC OT, FANUC 18T, and Allen-Bradley Computer Controls.
4. Milling Machines include three Bridgeport CNC Milling Machines (1985, 1989 and 1990) and two manual Bridgeports with digital readouts.

Large Parts Manufacturing

Configured to produce all Taylor products of over two inches in diameter; the Large Parts Division consists of a complete machine shop, using predominately custom-built machinery for boring, deep hole drilling, gun drilling, and turning of large parts. Two assembly zones are used, one of which is a deep pit area capable of assembling and pre- testing of products to 35 feet in length. Material handling equipment includes both overhead and jib cranes up to 5 tons capacity.

1. Manual lathes include a custom built LeBlond Regal for deep hole boring. This machine has a 9.25 inch hollow spindle, double chucked, with external roller type steady rest. Tubes up to 24 feet in length can be accommodated with ease. Bed length is 96 inches. Swing is 28 inches.
2. Semi-Automatic Lathes include:
   1. Warner & Swazey No. 2A Turret Lathe.
   2. Warner & Swazey No. 3A Turret Lathe, with 5 inch diameter hollow spindle and 40 horsepower drive.
   3. Lieber lathe, custom built in 1979 for Taylor Devices by Lieber of West Germany. This lathe features a 14 inch hollow spindle, double chucked, with a bed length of 102 inches, swing of 36 inches, and 50 horsepower drive. This lathe includes a microprocessor for automatic threading (with digital readout) with English and metric threads up to 36 inches diameter.
   4. Okuma CH55 CNC controlled lathe, built in 1980 and rebuilt for Taylor Devices in 1996. This machine has a 36 inch diameter capacity with a 108 inch bed length and a PC based controller.
   5. Warner and Swazey 4A turret lathe, built in 1972 and rebuilt by the manufacturer's representative in 1994. This machine has full versatility with cross feed and threading capabilities on both front and rear turrets. This machine has a 102 inch bed length, and features a 12 inch hollow spindle and 75 horsepower motor. Taylor Devices has equipped the machine with ejector type drill tooling with the capability to drill a high tolerance bore to 5 inches from solid bar and counterbore up to 8½ inches in diameter.
3. Computer Numeric Control turning capability is provided by two American Eagle Universal CNC Turning Centers (1979 and 1983). These machines can bar feed up to 3.5 inches diameter and have 30 horsepower drives. Control is provided by Bendix 5 M Controllers. The Eagle 2000 is a 62 inch slant bed machine with analog turret, 20 inch swing, and a 30 horsepower drive. The Eagle 3000 is similar.
4. Multi-axis CNC machining is provided by a Leadwell Vertical Machining Center, Model MCV 610D, built in 1990 and upgraded in 1994, and a Kearney & Trecker VB4 Vertical Machining Center built in 1980 and rebuilt for Taylor Devices in 1996. These machines perform high tolerance operations on parts of up to 750 pounds weight, up to 24 inches wide by 40 inches long and 20 inches high. These machines have a 15 horsepower spindle for high metal removal rates and 20 piece toolchangers for rapid part processing.

Facilities Common to Both Taylor Devices Manufacturing Centers

1. Honing and Diamond Lapping: Honing equipment includes five Sunnen hones, a Superior Automatic vertical hone and a Hutte Automatic vertical hone. The Sunnen machines include a 1995 small diameter horizontal (up to 1¼ inches diameter), a 1995 large diameter horizontal (up to 23 inches diameter and 60 feet length), and a vertical "Cylinder King," all high volume production hones. Our honing facilities routinely finish to 4 micro inch. For better finishes, our Diamond Lapping department utilizes three custom built machines (patented by Taylor Devices), that provide I.D. and O.D. lapped finishes to .25 micro inch on diameters to 24 inches.
2. Bar and plate handling: Facilities include a fully automatic, 12 inch diameter x 20 foot length capacity Hyd-Mech H-12 Saw, with digital controller, purchased in 1996.
3. Welding Shop: Welding is performed and certified to ASME and AISE codes in both electric arc and torch operations in our in- house weld shop.
4. Heat Treating: Taylor Devices maintains two Heat Treat furnaces with microprocessor controls and chart monitors. They are capable of handling parts to 40 inches length and 24 inches diameter.

Research and Development

Taylor Devices, as a defense contractor, participates actively in funded Government directed research, in addition to the Company's internal R&D program, and the activities of our publicly owned research affiliate, Tayco Developments, Inc. Research projects are structured within three areas, these being basic research, applied research, and product development. The scope of the Company's research activity includes passive and active structural control, natural and man-made environmental effects, fluid chemistry, interdisciplinary interfaces, seal development, structural dynamics, and vehicle control and handling.

It is a corporate policy to perform virtually all basic research and much of our applied research at our affiliate company, Tayco Developments, Inc. This assures maximum width and breadth of emergent R&D activities with a minimum of corporate limitations imposed on research personnel.

Planning for the Next Century

In the 1990's Taylor Devices has refined and constantly improved the company's Shock Isolator designs and has been most satisfied with the performance of the company's products in both military and commercial service. Projects are now in process to adapt control-structure active interfaces into the firm's isolation systems. These will allow the integration of electrically powered active controls into the firm's shock and vibration control products for the next century, when control by artificial intelligence or neural solution techniques are expected.

For additional information, contact Taylor Devices' Web Applications Engineer by mail, phone, or fax.

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