When Hallite Seals America went looking for a partner to develop a proprietary, one-of-a-kind testing system, it didn’t take long to choose MSOE and its Fluid Power Institute (FPI).

Hallite wanted to create a wiper-seal ingression testing method to assess the amount of dirt and dust that enters the typical hydraulic system through the rod wiper. Hallite was eager to test its own seals and use that performance data to improve its product lines, but no testing method existed at the time.

FPI agreed to develop a test fixture that could perform the ingression testing. “A steady flow of ideas between both teams helped us develop a very effective test fixture and high-precision testing methods,” said Russ Steinmetz, manager of testing services for FPI.