FLORENCE, Ky. (April 9, 2012)—Emerson Industrial Automation’s Kop-Flex Brand of Couplings, has earned ISO 9001:2008 certification of the Quality Management System at its Kop-Flex facility in Florence, Ky., joining facilities in Hanover, Md., Nove Mesto nad Vahom, Slovakia, and Toronto, Canada that previously received certification. The ISO certification covers Kop-Flex’s design and manufacture of mechanical power transmissions, flexible shaft couplings, gear type, diaphragm and disc type, resilient type, universal joint type, and high misalignment gear type and its torque monitoring system. Kop-Flex was the first coupling manufacturer in the United States to receive ISO certification in 1992.

ISO 9001 certification demonstrates a company's compliance with ISO 9001:2008, a set of guidelines developed by the International Organization for Standardization. These standards outline a philosophy of quality management and have been deployed in more than 160 countries.

“Our customers rely on Kop-Flex coupling products for their most demanding applications,” said Bob Dogge, Emerson Industrial Automation, vice president of operations - Couplings. “This latest ISO 9001:2008 certification validates what our customers already know: worldwide Kop-Flex products are engineered and manufactured to the highest quality standards.”

Independent auditors interviewed the leadership team at Kop-Flex’s Florence facility in February 2012 to develop an understanding of the leadership’s endorsement of the quality principles of ISO 9001. While on-site, the auditors reviewed the corporate goals that pertain to quality management and Kop-Flex’s senior management’s commitment to ensure compliance to the ISO management guidelines. In addition, auditors observed employees in their day-to-day activities and reviewed how well they follow established processes, the mechanisms in place to identify defects and the resulting corrective actions.

Kop-Flex produces heavy-duty industrial rotating shaft couplings and technology to serve industrial applications from pumps to compressors in petrochemical, process, pulp and paper and metal rolling industries.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 163 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations.  Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.

Emerson, based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is dedicated to bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial, and consumer markets around the world.  The company is comprised of five business segments: Process Management, Industrial Automation, Network Power, Climate Technologies, and Commercial & Residential Solutions.  Sales in fiscal 2011 were $24.2 billion. 

Emerson Industrial Automation delivers manufacturing solutions designed with leading technologies – including mechanical, electrical and ultrasonic – to provide the most advanced industrial automation possible for numerous and diverse industries worldwide. The company’s wide range of products and systems used in manufacturing processes and other equipment includes motion-control systems, plastics joining, precision cleaning, materials-testing equipment, fluid-control valves, alternators, motors, and mechanical power transmission drives and bearings. Emerson Industrial Automation’s mechanical power transmission business unit headquartered in Florence, Kentucky, consists of Browning®, Jaure®, Kop-Flex®, McGill®, Morse®, Rollway®, Sealmaster® and System Plast™ product brands.