- [Alex] Hello.
Hello, I'm looking for a small boy.
He lost in ping pong, he lost in ping pong last month.
Has anybody seen him?
He lost, if you guys find a young boy
his name's Mario and he lost in ping pong last month.
Let him know that I'm lookin for him so I can beat him.
Thanks.
So when it comes down to staying in Wisconsin
I'm actually really bad at it.
Anytime the winter gets really cold I just have a
tendency to go south to, like Texas, South Padre Island
maybe to, like, go to the Bahamas or something.
No, I don't do any of that.
But we actually decided to go down to California
to visit our friends over at AccuAir to figure out
how, like, they do stuff.
Because when you really think about, like
difference with an air suspension systems
and things like that
everybody always seems to talk about AccuAir.
And not just AccuAir products, but like how they're made.
Because there's so much stuff that goes into
what they do, so we just figured we would actually answer
the question of how an AccuAir Endo CVT system
actually is made from start to finish.
So, if you guys are ready to learn, like we're like
I'm the Magic School Bus from fifth grade.
We're gonna go through the process from start to finish.
And we'll show what they'll let us show, cause you know
there's legalities and stuff like that.
On how it's actually assembled, performed, tested
all that good stuff.
By the way, Alex from Fitment Industries.
Don't forget to subscribe, let's go check it out
over...there.
So if you guys didn't really know, when you're looking at
a pressurized vessel, you're pretty much looking at
something that could go wrong very, very easily
if you don't do it the right way.
Because you have a ton of pressure that's inside that tank
that if you have bad leak, or bad seals, bad anything
you can out of roundness, you can have bad things happen
in the trunk of your car, things like that.
So what they'll go through is they'll actually test it
before they even get into anything else.
So what you're gonna see is behind me, these guys have made
their own testing equipment to essentially make it
so they can look at everything on the metal.
Make sure the hardness testing is conducted correctly.
Making sure that it's not out of round.
They have something called a donut gauge
which sounds absolutely delicious.
And a couple other things that they do to make sure
essentially that the actual barrel of aluminum
the hollow barrel of aluminum, which I know I'm gonna get
judged for in the comments for saying it like that.
Is actually ready to be assembled the appropriate way
and what you're gonna notice is we go through the entire
process is that really it comes down to the little details
that make this thing so gosh darn neat.
And this is just one of the first steps.
So what happen is after it's actually been tested for
everything that they need, they'll actually take it to a
machine shop here in town.
So it's a local thing that they do to actually get some cool
business, so if you guys didn't know, a lot of what you're
gonna see here, they do in-house or they have the staff
in-house or they actually ship out locally
so that a lot of it can be, you know, essentially
done just right next door.
So you're gonna see, once this stuff is done, conducted
completed, they're ready to roll, it'll actually get shipped
out to a machine shop so that it can get all, like the
little things done that it needs to.
So it actually starts to look like a CVT system.
So once everything gets back from machining, you actually
have the process of getting everything together.
So you got the tanks that are pretty much ready to roll
which are nothing more than just a giant
really strong tube.
Then you have the end caps, and the end caps actually
have to be assembled as well.
And they have a bunch of really colorful parts here
but you essentially have your needles.
You have filters, you have all sorts of stuff to make sure
that when it actually gets put in
that you can have a snug tight fit.
So they actually did a cut-away which is pretty neat
in comparison to when it's all assembled.
Which is great for people like me that you could tell me
something 12 times in a row and I still won't understand it
but if I see it, it'll actually make a whole lot more sense.
So essentially what happens, and you're gonna have
to come closer because I know you can't see this.
Essentially what ends up happening is they install the caps
at this point, and then you're gonna see the connections
to the module which we'll see later down the road
connect to the back, to the actual manifold.
And then that's how it's gonna behave outside.
It's gonna get your controls out to your struts.
So pretty much, what's gonna happen here is you have more
assembly and then, just the most fundamental way
is again done in-house, and it's done right here
because what ends up happening, is they're able to control
everything to make sure that the QC is up to par.
So then what happens is that if there's any issues with
anything with their, like, maybe their needles or their
filters or anything like that, they'll actually catch that
down the line before anything gets shipped out.
And I think one of the coolest things about this
is just how detailed they really are in terms of, like
keeping the quality consistent.
So one thing that you may notice is that this actually
doesn't go anywhere but the purpose of that, is that
if anything manages to finagle its way into the tank itself
it won't get into anything else, and this is actually
gonna keep the debris outside of the manifold so you don't
have to worry about the manifold actually failing.
Which is pretty neat when you really think about it
because it's not something that you would ever see.
And it's not really something that AccuAir is gonna tell you
too much about because it's just kinda something that they
expect to do so that their product doesn't die.
So once everything comes out of the machine shop
and it's coming back, in the process they do
this thing called wiring, now if you guys didn't know
wiring is probably one of the worst things in the world
if you've ever done an engine swap, you know exactly
what I'm talking about.
Here's the thing, though, is that AccuAir really just
kind of does it themselves.
All...of...it.
Which is pretty interesting and here's why
it's so interesting.
If you guys didn't know, making different harnesses
different adapters, different pieces can actually be
extremely strenuous and a lot of people actually just
outsource, outsource it to Mexico, they outsource it
overseas they oversee it pretty much anyway except
doing it in-house, so what AccuAir realized is they can have
better lead times, better supply management, and everything
in between if they actually just bring it in-house and
do it themselves, so their solution to kind of dealing with
some of the inconsistencies of not having the best quality
when they'd outsource it, is actually
just bringing it in-house.
So everything that they're in terms of the wiring harness
is the thing that you see from here on out essentially
is all done right here.
And you have to remember, the reason for that is because
at the end of the day, which I know I just said that
they won't have to worry about anything failing down the
road because they're the ones making it.
So while the end caps are getting assembled, you essentially
have the actual hardware that makes everything happen.
So the WABCO compressors are actually used in some things
that you probably didn't know, so like, Teslas
a lot O.E., high end, like luxury Euro manufacturers
use the same exact compressors that you're gonna see AccuAir
using for their CVT systems.
Now what they have to do is they essentially have to
make it and grow on top of what they've already just bought
and what they need to do is they need to make it
unique for themselves.
So they've made their own tools to actually hold
the compressor the right way so that they can start
assembling what they need inside the actual compressor.
So that everything really starts to communicate.
So you have everything from your electronics to your wiring
all really starting to come together.
Everything is then tested to make sure
that it's all ready to go.
Because, really, it's a very expensive process the podding
which is the next step in terms of making everything here
correctly so that nothing leaks or gets loose.
Which is this really clean, but should be messy system
that kinda helps compare with everything, keeps it as clean
as possible so once you actually have all of the electronics
put together, you've got the wiring ready to go
the compressor's looking hot, you're ready
you got the whole little podding black goo
stuff from Prometheus.
And then what ends up happening is they're gonna add
their own, I wanna call it an assembly, it's pretty much
like a roll cage that has a three axis stabilizer within it.
And what that does is, obviously, a compressor moves.
And if you have ever heard a compressor before, it sounds
like something's dying in your trunk.
So they fix it by adding these isolators that essentially
allow the compressor to move within the tank.
But that compressor, when it moves, it's not actually
hitting anything or touching anything.
So what you end up having is a very quiet system
which is probably one of the biggest things that makes
the CVT system so special is how quiet it actually is.
But what they have to do is while they're essentially
assembling that system, they actually have to dial it in
as if you would an alignment.
So they'll go through the rest of the process
continuing to build on top of the compressor in terms of the
wiring, the balance, making sure that everything is working
together and then they'll go through and test it to make
sure that while it's within spec, that you don't have to
worry about those isolation things being maybe out of spec
or getting noisy, or anything like that because every single
one is tested before it goes into final assembly.
Okay, so then the next step that you're gonna have
is actually putting everything together.
So you have the actual bodies right here
and that's gonna be the different colors, which obviously
brown is the best one out of all of em.
That they're gonna start pulling to actually
make everything work.
They have this really fancy P.O. sheet that essentially has
a million check marks and a million signatures to make sure
everything is going together the way that they need to.
Then what you're gonna have are the end caps right over here
that we talked about before, because you have to have
the end caps and the actual body to make it work.
And then, what they're gonna do is, they're gonna pull the
module from the back, once they've actually completed
all of the assembly with the actual compressor in tow.
So then, what you have right here, is their final assembly
line and what they're doing here, is they take the P.O.
they start putting everything together, and now what the
neatest thing about this setup is that it's actually a
little bit different than what we're normally used to.
So, like, these guys don't have necessarily
they can't go to Harbor Freight and, like, pick up
this thing, this little module, for like 20 bucks.
They had to make this step system that can actually hold the
tank together so they can get everything put together
so they can get the caps put on and so that
it actually works appropriately.
So something that you're gonna see is pretty neat
is that a lot of the things that they actually made here to
assemble everything, they built themselves because nobody
else out there really had it, which is pretty neat.
What's gonna happen is everything twerked to spec
they start dialing in all the wiring.
They start dialing in everything that they need.
And then it goes to testing which is really where
a lot of the fun stuff starts to happen.
The second to last step is that it goes through its final
testing, so what you're gonna see is a tank of water
and then, obviously, the actual CVT system here.
Now this is a CVT, so they test a couple different things
and I'm totally gonna miss one or two
just because, but they do 0 to 200 pressure testing
to make sure that it actually fills up at the time that it
needs to fill up, so if it doesn't fill up, it goes back.
If it fills up too fast, it goes back.
It needs to fill up at an appropriate time that they set
to make sure that there's nothing wrong with what's
happening inside the system.
And they dump it back down to like 160, 150
then they test it again from 160 to 200.
Then they over-pressurize it to 230 to make sure that
there's nothin leaking or any big issues
that are happening in there.
Then they put it in the water to make sure that there's no
air leaking or anything like that.
And then they continuously repeat these steps to make sure
that everything on the inside and outside ends up being good
so that when it gets to final assembly, you don't have to
worry about, like, an overing that missed or something that
was leaking or anything like that because they've literally
gone through testing every step of the way.
Alright, so once everything is tested
you got all the pieces together, they've assembled
everything, everything's been machined and painted
and that sort of stuff, you might be thinking
do they actually just, like, throw a wet tank into the box
and, no they don't.
They go, they dry it off, they clean it.
They put it in a nice bag and then they heat it up
they shrink wrap it, they make it look good
and ready to roll.
And then they actually assemble it, they put it in a box
they get all the cushioning and all the insulation
in there so that nothing moves around.
And then it gets shipped to your door.
So one of the craziest things, as we've kind of gone through
the process is the attention to detail.
And you guys might be wondering, a lot of times we get
comments about air suspension being super expensive and
yeah, it's true, I mean air suspension isn't the cheapest
thing that you could possibly buy when it comes down to the
grand scheme of things that you can install in your car.
But when you're looking at something that goes into the
intense details of, like, what goes on here
it kind of makes sense as to why it is the way that it is.
And when you go in to how much effort that these guys
go though to make sure that everything is assembled
correctly, that you have the instructions that you need.
That you have all the information possible so that when you
put it in your car, you can actually be happy the first
time that you use it
that's really what makes the difference.
And that's probably one of the coolest things
that we noticed here, from start to finish as you look at
the CVT system and pretty much anything that come out
of this warehouse.
So we hope you guys enjoyed this kind of breakdown.
Let us know in the comment section if you have any questions
and if you're looking for AccuAir suspension
or just wheels, tires in general
head to fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex, from Fitment Industries.
Don't forget to subscribe and we will see you later.
Peace.