Situation
The client, a mid-size furniture OEM supplying retailers across Western Europe, was refreshing a bedroom and home-office line that relied on visible side-mount slides. The brief called for a cleaner undermount look with integrated soft-close, while keeping the existing drawer box dimensions and hole patterns wherever possible.
Volume targets were aggressive: 40,000 sets per year across five SKUs, with strict repeatability on push-force, rebound and noise. The finish also had to survive the client's own 24-hour neutral salt-spray acceptance test and meet EU REACH requirements without exemptions.
Finally, the customer needed engineering support for the transition — mounting position check, sample approval and a documented production release — rather than a simple off-the-shelf part.
Engineering response
We selected a 3/4-extension undermount runner with an integrated polymer damper and a hardened steel bracket system. The first step was a mounting-position survey against the client’s existing drawer box and cabinet side-wall thickness. We then produced 3D-printed bracket prototypes for fit confirmation before cutting any production tooling.
The slide geometry was adjusted to give a 19.2 mm mounting clearance and a 13 mm drawer side recess, matching the customer’s panel workflow. We upgraded the finish to a trivalent passivated zinc layer with a topcoat seal, which cleared the 24-hour salt-spray requirement while remaining RoHS / REACH compliant.
During the sample phase we ran cycle testing to 50,000 cycles, measured opening and closing force curves, and documented dimensional CpK on the bracket stamping. The approved configuration was locked under a customer-specific drawing number, and each production lot is released with an inspection report.
Verification
Real figures from the project file.
Outcome
The program moved into mass production within 16 weeks of sample approval. Current run-rate is 40,000+ sets per year delivered in weekly replenishment lots.
Quality performance has held below 0.4 % external defect PPM over the last four quarters. The soft-close force curve and acoustic signature are now part of the client's own incoming-goods checklist, and we have not had a single batch rejected at salt spray since launch.
The success of the line led to a second undermount program for a soft-close pantry slide, now in tooling review.