Kitting and vendor consolidation for seals

Why do plants consolidate seal suppliers?

Every supplier on the approved vendor list is a file someone keeps up: the quality survey, the certificates, the audits, the open orders and the invoices. Seals spread across many of those files, because O-rings, gaskets, shaft seals and molded parts often come from different sources. Moving them onto fewer suppliers cuts the files, the receipts and the paperwork per receipt, as long as every part still crosses exactly. That is where the work is: a seal moves to a new supplier only when its size, its material and its paperwork match what the print and the purchase order ask for.

The products page lists every product line Conquest Seal supplies, from O-rings and gaskets to hydraulic, radial shaft and mechanical seals. The vendor consolidation page covers buying them from Conquest Seal as one supplier.

How do buyers run a seal consolidation?

1. Pull the seal lines from your purchase history: part number and revision, description, specification or drawing, current supplier and annual usage.
2. Group them by product line and by specification, so parts that cross the same way are handled together.
3. Cross each part. An O-ring's size crosses by its AS568 dash number, whatever prefix a maker puts in front of it; the material crosses to the specification the print names, and an equal to one maker's compound is the print owner's decision.
4. List the documents each part needs at receiving: the certificate of conformance, the manufacturer's certificate, a first article report or an age limit.
5. Move the lines in batches, starting with the parts that cross exactly, and keep the current source until the first lots pass receiving.

The part number cross-reference guide works through common callouts, and the second source page sets out what ships when Conquest Seal is the new source for a part you already buy.

How do blanket orders and scheduled releases work?

A blanket purchase order covers the agreed parts for a period, and the plant calls quantities off it with releases as the line needs them. A release schedule lists those quantities and the dates the plant wants them, so the supplier can plan what to hold. Under vendor-managed inventory the supplier watches usage and replenishes to an agreed level instead of waiting for each release.

At Conquest Seal: releases run against a blanket purchase order, and each release is numbered on the order, so your open-order report and ours match release by release. Send your open-order report as it comes out of your system, and every line is checked against our order book. Under vendor-managed inventory the agreed items are replenished to an agreed level, with the minimum, the maximum and the review cadence written into the program, and the levels change only with you. The stocking and vendor-managed inventory page sets out the program terms.

What is a seal kit, and when does kitting make sense?

A seal kit is the set of seals one assembly, one repair or one service job needs, packed and labeled under one kit part number. Kitting makes sense when the same set goes into every unit, when line-side space is short, or when service teams need complete sets in the field. It makes less sense when the quantity per assembly changes from build to build, or when one seal in the set is used up well before the rest.

Elastomer seals add one rule of their own: a kit is only as young as its oldest rubber part, because each one is counted from its own manufacturer's cure date. The kit's paperwork has to carry each component's lot and cure date, or receiving cannot check the age limit on your order. The shelf-life guide explains how cure dates are read.

What should a kit list include?

• The kit part number and revision, and the assembly or service job it serves
• Each component's part number, revision and quantity per kit, with the specification or compound the print names
• How the kit is packed: each component bagged and tagged with its part number and lot (bag and tag), or all components in one bag
• What the label says: the kit number, each component's part number and lot, and the cure date on elastomer parts
• The documents per kit: which certificates travel with it, and whether a list of the component lots goes inside
• How many kits each release calls for, and the release schedule if you have one

How do certificates and traceability work inside a kit?

Packing seals together does not make them one lot. Each component keeps its own manufacturer, lot and certificate, and receiving needs to trace each one back to its manufacturer's certificate, as it would for loose parts. Ask that the kit's paperwork lists every component with its part number and lot, so the certificates can be matched to the kit.

At Conquest Seal: a certificate of conformance ships with every order, naming the part number, the specification, the manufacturer, the lot and the quantity, with the manufacturer's cure date on elastomer parts. Traceability runs from the manufacturer's certificate through Conquest Seal's receipt and shipment. If you want the parts for one assembly packed and labeled together, put the kit list and the label text in the quote request, and the reply says how the parts can be supplied.

What should you send for a consolidation quote?

• The part list: each part number, AS568 dash number or drawing, with its revision
• The specification and the compound, where the print names them
• Annual usage, and the blanket order or release schedule if you have one
• Kit lists, for any parts you want packed by assembly
• The documents your program needs beyond the certificate of conformance
• Your supplier questionnaire, if Conquest Seal would be a new supplier for you

Send the list through the quote form, which takes a PDF part list or a drawing as a file, or by email from the contact page; a person replies within one business day. The supplier onboarding guide covers the documents a supplier file needs.

Sources

1. SAE ARP5316E, Storage of Elastomer Seals and Seal Assemblies Which Include an Elastomer Element Prior to Hardware Assembly (cancelled 2018-10 and superseded by SAE AS5316): storage life counted from the cure date, section 2.2.3, licensed copy read 2026-09-25; the cancellation and the successor are printed on that copy's cover
2. Parker O-Ring Handbook ORD 5700, section IX size tables (pages 9-2 to 9-11), read 2026-09-06, and section 4.5, boss seals (the AS568-901 to -932 sizes as Parker's 3- series), read 2026-09-24