Kearflex Engineering Co

Kearflex Engineering Co designs and manufactures diaphragm based pressure sensing products in Warwick, Rhode Island. Founded in 1963 as a small family business making pressure sensing metallic diaphragms for aerospace, it is now in its fifth decade and is run with a third generation of the founding Kearney family.

Products

• Single element metallic diaphragms for isolation, pressure sensing, switches and transducers, in a standard line or full custom designs
• Capsule assemblies built from the diaphragm line, in a range of diameter and stack combinations, often as form fit replacements for existing products
• Complex subassemblies and modules that drop into a customer product, tested and calibrated
• Pressure switches and transducers, using electrical switches or primary sensors from any manufacturer
• Complete flight instruments used as standby indicators in military and commercial cockpits
• Air data interface products, plus industrial products such as purge type level measurement systems and groundwater monitoring instruments

The company says its sensors are used worldwide in military and commercial aircraft, supplying pressure outputs to cabin monitoring systems, air data transducers and pitot static instruments. Its flight instruments are named as flying on the F-18, F-15, F-16, T-45, T-38 and AH-64 Apache.

Engineering services

• Developing products where none exist, or replacing products with poor reliability
• Second source development to reduce supplier risk
• Reverse engineering of products at the end of their service life
• Outsourced specialty manufacturing and integration of diaphragm products into customer designs
• Welding, brazing, soldering and external processes such as plating and anodizing

Certifications and approvals

• ISO 9001:2015 certified, registered since July 1996, covering metallic diaphragms, sub-assemblies, snap and pressure switches, rupture disks and pressure instrumentation for aerospace and non-aerospace use
• Raw materials traceable from receipt to shipment
• Designated self-release vendor for several large aerospace companies

Company facts

• Founded in 1963 in Rhode Island
• Describes itself as a sole source supplier on a number of critical programmes
• Nearly 100 percent domestic content in its products