Automatic leak testers make light work of plastic fuel tanks

The four systems are being used to test plastic fuel tanks molded for the lawn maintenance industry. The Yamaha Helium Leak Test process constantly controls the pressure differential between the tank and the test chamber without the need for jigs to prevent warping or deformation. The systems can be used for automatically verifying leakage rates in fuel tanks manufactured for the automotive, ATV, water sport, lawn and agricultural equipment and other related markets.

"Warping and deformation is an industry-wide problem affecting 100% of the manufacturers of fuel tanks," stated Doug Dalgliesh, president of FlexControl Solutions (Philadelphia, PA). "With new U.S environmental regulations mandating leakage rates for fuel tanks in most industries, manufacturers of all types of equipment are looking for their tank suppliers to provide quantifiable leak testing results of the product they supply. With over 40 fuel tank test systems installed worldwide including four scheduled to go online this summer in the U.S. at Yazaki Company Ltd. in Georgia, Yamaha Fine Technologies is well positioned to supply and service the North American market."

Yamaha also manufacturers manually loaded leak tests systems but most of the 350+ systems in the field are automated. According to Mike Yamamoto, manager - FA sales at Yamaha Fine Technologies (YFT), the company is the leading supplier in the Japanese market for fuel tank helium leak test systems with an approximate 95% market share. YFT is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Yamaha Corp.