SecuriLock Passes On-Site Supplier Audit by a Leading Global EV Manufacturer

SecuriLock has passed a multi-day on-site supplier audit conducted by a leading global electric vehicle manufacturer and has been formally added to the manufacturer's approved supplier system for rotary locks and rotary latches. The audit team spent several days at our 30,000 m² factory in Xuzhou, China, reviewing everything from incoming material control to final functional testing. The result: SecuriLock is now qualified to supply rotary latching hardware for the manufacturer's vehicle programs, and the first nominated project is already in the sampling phase.

For an automotive OEM, adding a new hardware supplier is never a paperwork exercise. This article summarises what the audit covered, how our team answered the auditors' questions, and what the outcome means for other vehicle and transportation equipment manufacturers evaluating SecuriLock.

What the On-Site Audit Covered

The manufacturer's supplier quality team worked from a structured audit protocol that covered four main areas:

• Quality management system. Document control, calibration records, nonconformance handling, corrective action loops and management review. Auditors traced two randomly selected customer complaints from report to verified corrective action.
• Process control on the shop floor. Stamping, machining, surface treatment and final assembly were walked line by line. The team checked work instructions at each station, first-article inspection records, torque control on assembly tools and reaction plans for out-of-tolerance dimensions.
• Traceability. From a finished rotary latch pulled at random from the warehouse, the auditors asked us to trace back to the raw material batch, the heat lot of the spring wire and the plating batch, within one working hour. The trace was completed in under forty minutes.
• Laboratory capability. The team witnessed a live salt spray test in our in-house laboratory (tested to ASTM B117 and ISO 9227), reviewed cycle life test fixtures for rotary mechanisms and verified that test equipment calibration was current.

The audit closed with a detailed findings list rather than a simple pass or fail. The few minor observations raised, mostly around labeling consistency in one warehouse zone, were closed with corrective action evidence within ten working days.

How SecuriLock Answered the Audit

Most audit questions were answered not with presentations but with records that already exist in daily production:

• One factory, full process visibility. Our 30,000 m² Xuzhou site houses stamping, machining, surface treatment, assembly and testing under one roof, so auditors could follow a latch from steel coil to packed carton in a single walk.
• 100% functional testing. Every rotary lock and latch is actuated and load-checked before packing, not sampled, every piece. Test records are kept per production batch.
• AQL-based outgoing inspection. Dimensional and visual checks run to agreed AQL levels on top of the functional test, with retained samples from each batch.
• Delivery performance. We provided a 36-month shipment record showing 100% on-time delivery across all export customers, which the audit team verified against order and logistics documents.
• Engineering depth. The team reviewed our 14 registered patents on rotary latching mechanisms and discussed damping, cable release and two-stage locking variants with our engineers.

Because stamping dies, plating lines and assembly fixtures are owned and maintained in-house, process changes requested by a customer can be implemented in days rather than negotiated through subcontractors. The audit team specifically noted this vertical integration as a schedule advantage for new program launches.

Audit Result and Next Steps

The closing meeting confirmed SecuriLock as an approved supplier for rotary locks and latches. The first nominated project covers a manual drive rotary latch application, and prototype samples are being built to the customer's drawing with a 20 to 35 working day sample lead time. Production part approval documentation, dimensional reports and material certificates will accompany the initial sample shipment, and third-party test reports are available on request.

For this program we are supplying hardware from the same product families already listed on this site, including our manual drive rotary latch and heavy duty damped rotary latch series, adapted to the customer's mounting and load requirements.

What This Means for Vehicle Manufacturers

An EV maker's audit is one of the toughest checks a hardware supplier can face, because vehicle programs combine automotive-level traceability demands with aggressive launch timelines. Passing it confirms in practice what we tell every transportation equipment customer:

• Your latching hardware comes from a single audited site with full process control, not a trading chain.
• Batch-level traceability and 100% functional testing are standard, so field issues can be isolated quickly and precisely.
• A 36-month 100% on-time delivery record de-risks your launch schedule.
• Free STEP and DWG drawings are provided within one working day, so your engineering team can evaluate fit before any commercial commitment.

Capacity was part of the assessment as well: the Xuzhou site runs multiple shifts and ships export orders every week, so ramping from sample builds to series production does not require a tooling move or a second qualification. Whether you build electric vehicles, rail vehicles, special vehicles or charging infrastructure, the same audited processes stand behind every SecuriLock rotary lock we ship.

Start Your Project

Send us your door drawing, load requirement and estimated annual volume through the contact page. A SecuriLock engineer will reply within 24 hours with a product recommendation, free CAD files and a quotation. Production orders start from an MOQ of 50 pieces, and samples ship in 20 to 35 working days.