Follow The Lee Company
Here at The Lee Company we’ve put together a new interactive video that shows our manufacturing facility and processes in a whole new light. Complete with 360° functionality, viewers can rotate around at will, to see in any direction. Simply position the cursor over the video, hold down the left mouse key and rotate away.
Headquartered at over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space in Westbrook, Connecticut, we can now show anyone interested in our business exactly how we operate. Hosted by Jeff Dickey, our Executive Vice President – Hydraulics, the 360° video tour sets out why we’re seen as the sector’s market leader by walking viewers through the process of making one of our world-famous Lee valves.
The tour begins with how our engineers go about designing and detailing a new valve, specifying the dimensional, material, process and quality parameters required to meet customer demands.
With the design approved, the immersive video moves on to our CNC machine shop, where the latest CAM software is exploited to ensure that component machining programs are optimised. Many of the machines are tended by robots, making light work of loading and unloading operations. The toolroom is also shown, where we not only make tooling and fixtures, but many prototype parts.
In the inspection department, quality personnel are busy ensuring the compliance of our manufactured parts, many of which feature tolerances smaller than the thickness of an aluminium foil sheet. Here, the latest vision systems and co-ordinate measuring machines are put to good use.
On the assembly lines, viewers will be made aware of the attention-to-detail required in this important operation. Then it’s on to the test lab, where technicians put the hydraulic valve through its paces, simulating the actual aircraft system for which it is intended. To 100% test all of our miniature hydraulic flow and control devices we have dozens of test stands operating on various fluids, some with pressures up to 10,000 psi (690 bar).
Laser marking, final inspection and packaging for shipment complete the process.
