Progressive Distributor - NAHAD Hose Guidelines project to introduce new tools

NAHAD Hose Guidelines project to introduce new tools

by Robb Fish

When the NAHAD Board of Directors gathered for their annual meeting in Nashville in early 1993, none of the attendees imagined it would mark the beginning of a major initiative that would have far reaching consequences for the hose industry.

Although a variety of specific manufacturing standards for hose and fittings had existed for years, the industry was lacking clear, unified guidelines for hose assembly fabrication, including: a standard glossary of terms; coupling methods; assembly cleaning, identification and packaging techniques; installation, handling and replacement guidelines; maintenance inspections; and fabrication and design guidance. The NAHAD board committed to engaging in this process with the stated goals of improving the quality, reliability and safety of hose assemblies.

After seven years of labor by scores of member volunteers and dozens of companies, NAHAD introduced its formal Hose Assembly Guidelines in April 2000. A Web-based document nearly 400 pages long, the Guidelines included extensive procedural recommendations for Industrial, Hydraulic, Composite, Corrugated Metal and Fluoropolymer hose assemblies. The Guidelines were now available for member use, serving as a training, education, reference and marketing tool.

However, the size of the document, coupled with the limitations of their use, brought the NAHAD board to decide, in the spring of 2003, that the Guidelines document needed to be redesigned and reformatted, in order to be of most use to member companies and to the industry. A new committee was formed at that meeting, with board member Sam Foti Jr. of Hose Master Inc., Cleveland, appointed to lead the effort that would make the NAHAD Guidelines a recognized industry “standard.”

At NAHAD’s 20th anniversary convention in Phoenix in 2004, following a year of planning, the Standards Committee presented its plan for redesigning the Guidelines and for creating a series of valuable publications, Web content and member services that would make the Guidelines a compelling business tool. A year later, in April 2005, the committee introduced the first phases of the project, with the introduction of five different Hose Assembly Specifications manuals for Industrial, Hydraulic, Composite, Corrugated Metal and Fluoropolymer hoses, as well as the new NAHAD Listed Members program; a unique recognition and marketing benefit provided to eligible NAHAD firms who meet performance compliance criteria.

The backbone of the recent two-year effort has been the support of more than 280 NAHAD member volunteers, representing 150 member companies, serving on the Standards Committee or on one or more of the five Product Group Technical Teams. These committed NAHAD members will continue to serve in the development and ongoing review of additional Guidelines products, including the new Hose Assembly Design Web site and the Hose Assembly Fabrication Web site and a series of online Certificate Training Programs, designed to provide convenient employee training programs for each of the five product group areas. The committee anticipates delivering these new services at NAHAD’s 2006 Annual Convention in Colorado Springs on April 8 – 12.

The Hose Assembly Design Web site will target sales engineers with the goal of providing hose assembly design guidelines once installation parameters have been identified. Other topics in the Hose Assembly Design Web site will include length calculations, derating factors and chemical compatibility, among others.

The Hose Assembly Fabrication Web site will target warehouse fabricating personnel and provide procedures for assembly fabrication. It will include best practices for everything from cutting to packaging.

According to committee chairman Foti, “One of the many unique benefits of having engaged in this process over the past 12 years is the level of participation, involvement and support that our member manufacturers and distributors have exhibited, working together to meet the needs of our end-users, with the goal of improving hose assembly safety and reliability.”

For more details on the HAG program, visit www.nahad.org or contact Robb Fish at (800) 624-2227.