Incorporated in 1955, Taylor Devices, Inc. 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 50+ years of successful experience in the shock and vibration control field. Our products offer a turn-key solution to shock and vibration problems, with Taylor Devices providing full analysis, development, manufacturing and testing capabilities to satisfy the most exacting customer requirements.

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 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 of Research at the Wales-Strippit Corporation, a machine tool manufacturer. The highlight of these developments was 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, 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 since been improved upon, with the associated improvement patents, to the point that millions of cycles of totally leak-free operation can be achieved without maintenance or seal replacement.

In addition to Teflon®, other structural plastics are 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, providing 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.

At the turn of the century, 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 is now in its sixth decade as a supplier of critical shock isolation components to the United States Government. Some major armed forces programs utilizing energy management components of Taylor Devices include:

 

Arresting Gear, Navy F-8 and A-7 Aircraft Shock Isolation System, NASA Apollo Program Arresting Gear, Navy S-3 Aircraft Shock Isolation System, Army Skycrane Helicopter Shock Isolation System, Navy PHALANX Gun Shock Isolation System, NASA Space Shuttle Energy Absorber, Navy MK 86 Antenna Energy Absorber, Navy MK 88 Antenna Energy Absorber, Navy MK 92 Antenna Energy Absorber, Navy SPS 49 Antenna Shock Isolation System, Navy Terrier Missile Energy Absorber, NATO Seasparrow Missile Energy Absorber, Army and Marines TOW-Cobra Missile Shock Isolation System, Navy VLS Tomahawk Missile Shock Isolation System, Navy and DEA Soft Mount Guns MX Missile, Shock Isolation System, MPS Basing Mode MX Missile, Shock Isolation System, CSB Basing Mode MX Missile, Shock Isolation System, DBWS Basing Mode B-2 Stealth Bomber, Classified Application Seawolf Submarine, Classified Application Shock Isolation System, NATO VLS Sparrow Missile Shock Isolation System, Navy Standard Missile, Block IV Active Shock Isolation System, Army THAAD Missile Active and Passive Dampers, NASA EELV Program Shock Isolation System, Navy Q/70 Family of Electronics Enclosures Virginia Class Submarine, Classified Application 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-Niagara 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: Two interconnected production plants, designated as "Small Manufacturing" and "Large Manufacturing." A seismic damper assembly plant, capable of producing individual seismic protection devices up to 45 feet in length. A research and development center, housing the research affiliate of Taylor Devices. 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 The Small Parts division is configured to produce all Taylor products less than two inches in diameter. Our small parts facility includes a complete 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. Manual lathes include six machines by Hardinge, Clausing, LeBlond, etc., used for turning, boring and milling. Deep hole drilling equipment consisting of Eldorado Gun Drills. 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. Milling Machines include three Bridgeport CNC Milling Machines (1985, 1989 and 1990) and two manual Bridgeports with digital readouts. Large Parts Manufacturing The Large Parts Division is configured to produce all Taylor products over two inches in diameter. The facility 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 45 feet in length. Material handling equipment includes both overhead and jib cranes up to 10 tons capacity. Manual lathes include a custom built Poreba Lathe for deep hole boring. This machine has a 12 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 120 inches. Swing is 36 inches. Deep hole drilling equipment: Warner & Swazey number 3A Turret Lathe, with 5 inch diameter hollow spindle and 40 horsepower drive. Redesigned and rebuilt for Taylor Devices for deep hole drilling up to 3-1/2 inches in diameter. 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. It 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 up to 8-1/2 inches in diameter. Computer Numeric Control Turning Equipment: Two American Eagle Universal CNC Turning Centers (1979 and 1983), recently rebuilt. These machines can bar feed up to 3-1/2 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. An Okuma LC40 slant bed, chucking and turning center built in 1998 and refurbished for Taylor Devices in 2002. This machine has a 22 inch turning capacity with a 34 inch between center capacity. The turning center includes a 12 station automatic tool changer and is powered by a 40 horsepower spindle drive. The machine has the ability to repeatedly turn parts to .0002 inch tolerances. An Okuma LH50 flat bed, universal turning center built in 1980 and rebuilt for Taylor Devices in 1996. This machine has a 36 inch turning capacity with a 108 inch between center capacity. The turning center includes twin 8 station automatic tool changers and is powered by a 50 horsepower spindle drive. The machine has the ability to repeatedly turn parts to .0005 inch tolerances. Multi-axis CNC milling 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. They feature 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 Grinding Equipment: Centerless capability is provided by a Nippei Industrial Company centerless grinder capable of grinding 1/16 inch to 3-9/16 inch diameter by up to 36 inch lengths on a high volume production basis. Center grinding capability is provided by a Cincinnati Universal Center grinder capable of grinding parts up to 14 inches in diameter by 72 inches in length. These machines have the ability to grind diversified materials with up to a 60 Rockwell hardness, holding tolerances of .0001 and finishes of less than 4 micro inch on a production basis. 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. 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. 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. 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 As a defense contractor, Taylor Devices actively participates 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: 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. Corporate policy dictates that virtually all basic research and most of our applied research is conducted 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 Future Taylor Devices is constantly refining and improving its Shock Isolator designs and is tremendously proud of the performance of the Company's products in both military and commercial service. Projects are now underway to adapt active control-structure 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 of the future, when control by artificial intelligence or neural solution techniques are expected.

---