Final week I used to be fortunate sufficient to be invited out to Beaverton OR to take a tour of the Leupold manufacturing facility with numerous different out of doors journalists. Our tour started within the lovely entrance foyer of Leupold HQ the place our tour information Nic Kytlica gave us a quick historical past of the corporate.
Manufacturing facility Excursions @ TFB:
Transient Historical past
In 1907, the West was a preferred vacation spot for People who needed to make a brand new life for themselves, and with that craving and sense of journey got here the necessity to construct out new infrastructure and develop cities alongside the best way. Fred Leupold and his shut buddy Adam Volpel noticed a golden alternative to be the one producer of surveying gear on the West Coast. They arrange store in Portland, Oregon and Leupold Volpel & Co. was born, turning into one of many premier surveying gear producers in America.
In 1914, J.C. Stevens entered the image as Fred Leupold’s new associate. J.C. was an Edison-type determine who introduced with him a bunch of proprietary concepts and patents. Most notable was his water measurement system, which transmitted water ranges over telegraph wires. This was a revolutionary step ahead in expertise on the time. Then, in 1945, Fred’s son, Marcus Leupold, set the corporate on a path to turn out to be the world’s foremost riflescope producer.
Present HQ
Legend has it that whereas searching sooner or later, Marcus Leupold missed a buck as a result of his scope fogged up. He swore he might make a greater scope, and that’s simply what he did. Having been round precision optical devices his entire life, he labored weekends and nights together with his engineering workforce, and in 1947 Leupold & Stevens, Inc. launched its first riflescope. We referred to as it the Plainsman, and it was the primary really fog-proof scope constructed by People.
Leupold Manufacturing facility Tour – Engineering
The First cease on our tour was to the Leupold optics lab, which was extra of an exterior tour than an inside one as that is the place quite a lot of the key sauce goes into their merchandise. Naturally, we needed to all go behind the closed doorways, however this was merely not doable on this tour and for very comprehensible causes. It was good to listen to that each Leupold optical system is designed and examined in the home. I find it irresistible after I hear that an organization does all the pieces for his or her product in a single location. Particularly when it’s a extremely technical and troublesome to supply merchandise like a scope.
Outdoors of the engineering division, we walked to the check board which is a big out of doors distinction, colour consistency, chromatic, aberration, monitoring, and glare board, which is the place all the optics are visually examined by the optics lab. What are the important thing factors that was introduced up just a few instances was the truth that we had been pulled likes to check their merchandise within the real-world lighting circumstances.
Optical Testing Board
Clearly, this is smart however apparently, there are some optics firms on the market that might somewhat have their scope look good within the fluorescent white of a gun store, than in precise pure daylight, so to check the true efficiency of optics, Leupold recommends that you just take your scope exterior of the gun store into the true daylight after which do your comparisons there. Undoubtedly some good data.
Leupold Manufacturing facility Tour – Machine Store
From there we made our means downstairs into the machine store. That is the place we discovered the store receiving bay the place all the uncooked aluminum was delivered and there was quite a lot of it. It’s onerous to imagine however Leupold is the second largest shopper of aluminum on the West Coast subsequent to Boeing. All the aluminum is made within the USA and we had been advised it’s all of prime aerospace-grade alloys.
It was good to see that all the aluminum shavings had been taken care of and dealt with accurately. They take the chips from the machines and place them in a centrifuge which spins out the slicing fluid. Then they dry the chips after which they’re positioned in a special machine that compresses them into cylinders the dimensions of a giant soup can. This course of saves and makes it simpler for his or her aluminum suppliers to recycle them.
Discarded Tubes
Recycled Materials
It’s onerous to imagine however standing on the entrance entrance of the manufacturing facility you’d by no means imagine that it spans greater than 150,000 sq. ft. When strolling across the manufacturing facility ground, we had been proven dozens of several types of CNC machines, all ranging in dimension of a compact automobile to a locomotive practice engine. Many of the CNC machines had been of the model INDEX which I used to be not accustomed to, however I used to be advised that because of their extremely tight tolerances and excessive output quantity, these are a number of the greatest CNC machines on the planet.
One thing that definitely shocked me on the tour was that Leupold makes all the pieces that goes into their scopes. All the interior components to regulate diles, the screws.
“With the ability to management the tolerances of extraordinarily intricate elements just like the adjustment screws is a vital piece of the manufacturing puzzle” stated our tour information Nic.
These elements turn out to be crucial as a result of while you need to make an adjustment to your scope and also you’re making an adjustment of 1/4 MOA or .1 MIL, that adjustment must be very exact.
Primary Tubes
We then walked over to the standard assurance division, which is the place all elements are evaluated. After all not each single element is evaluated, however solely a share of the components from every a part of the scope.
After that, we walked over to the bead blasting space, which is the final step of all exterior components earlier than they get anodized. The bead blast chamber used a proprietary course of to make sure tight tolerances and helps give them the mat/satin texture that their scopes are recognized for.
After all the elements are full, they’re then housed within the element warehouse. After strolling by way of principally a gray and white manufacturing facility, the element warehouse was a refreshing pop of colour as there have been lots of of colourful bins full of completely different elements that had been being sorted and moved round. I discovered it very attention-grabbing that every one of those elements are on a 50-foot tall computerized shelf system for storage when not in use.
Subsequent up we’re bases and rings and whereas I feel the vast majority of individuals will exit and purchase a pleasant scope after which put it on $25 rings, I used to be advised that’s not the best way you need to be mounting your scope. For so long as they’ve been placing collectively scopes, they’ve additionally been producing the mounting merchandise for them. We had been advised that the connection between the optic, and the firearm is usually missed, however it’s a important a part of making the entire system work. Because of advances in expertise they’ll rapidly prove rings from uncooked materials.
The blanks are available in and they’re drilled and tapped and able to go. They stamp their emblem on the highest and gently tumble them to take away sharp edges after which marking them to match their scopes.
They declare that these elements are so exact that the tops and bottoms don’t even must be matched collectively which implies that lapping rings must be a factor of the previous in case you purchase from Leupold.
Thanks for studying and keep tuned for the 2023 Leupold Manufacturing facility Tour Half 2.
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