Content tagged with "quality-control"
Results: 15
Article
February 11, 2010
Waste not, want more
Figure 1 Finding enough room for a group photo is not that big of a deal at General MetalWorks, Mequon, Wis. Elimination of excess raw material inventory and racks of work-in-process hascleared plenty of floor space for such an event. Photos by Lila Aryan Photography.
Waste is not... Read more...
Article
May 26, 2009
Sensors in the welding environment
Figure 1 A sensor that is not expected to last beyond exposure to 5,000 weld flashes might have a very limited life in a robotic welding cell. Sensors play a pivotal role in ensuring production quality in welding environments. The automotive industry, for example, relies heavily on... Read more...
Article
May 26, 2009
Article
January 15, 2009
Keeping welding costs from spiraling out of control
Figure 1
Skyline Steel’s Cartersville, Ga.-based facility has been making spiral pipe with the same mill equipment that was originally installed in 1992.
The large-diameter pipe used for the transmission of gas and oil traditionally has been made using either the longitudinal or... Read more...
Article
December 15, 2008
Lost in translation
Today, myriad proprietary design and inspection languages exist, and none can talk to another without a translator. It's a situation sources liken to the Tower of Babel.
Quality managers at certain industrial heavyweights have a dream: for all digital part data—including elements... Read more...
Article
April 15, 2008
The right trace at the right time
Whenever a laser is used in an industrial setting, a safety enclosure is usually required. To eliminate the expense of setting up an expensive enclosure room for use of its MeccoMark 20-W, fiber-delivered ytterbium laser marking system, Ford and MECCO engineers developed a safety snorkel on... Read more...
Article
April 15, 2008
Where sensors make sense
Sensor-driven errorproofing can help stamping shops prevent the production of bad parts, die crashes, and downtime. Metal formers today find that increasingly customers are no longer satisfied with just a low percentage of defective parts, measured in parts per thousand. Today customers... Read more...
Article
October 9, 2007
Measure it, graph it, control it
You have probably heard of statistical process control (SPC), and you probably use it as a tool for quality assurance or quality control. Developed in the 1920s by physicist and mathematician Walter Shewhart, SPC has other uses too. Specifically, it can help to improve productivity and therefore... Read more...
Article
August 8, 2007
Gaining control of resistance welding
"Running blind" is an expression that can be applied to resistance welding operations throughout the manufacturing world. Many engineers and operators have no clear information on what is actually occurring during the weld or a means to verify the equipment. As the pressure mounts on... Read more...
Article
July 10, 2007
Article
June 12, 2007
Bend process monitoring—small changes lead to big results
In many advanced fabrication shops, tube bending is a highly automated process that uses robotic and CNC bending machines to produce high volumes of complex tubes, each one formed to precise specifications. Robotic, automated operations are fascinating to watch as the steel tube... Read more...
Article
June 13, 2006
Envelope, please!
Do you remember this photo that originally appeared in the January/February issue of TPJ on page 10? I asked readers to send me short, glib captions for the photo and promised to publish them in a future issue. Well, the time has come. But first, let's digress. You might recall that the... Read more...
Article
May 9, 2006
Achieving quality global manufacturing networks
Pressure from customers, regulatory agencies, and shareholders is driving manufacturers to produce higher-quality products as they continue to strive for additional cost reductions. Although high quality is a key determinant of customer satisfaction and long-term corporate... Read more...
Article
April 11, 2006
What do you monitor to ensure quality?
The crimp force monitor is sensitive enough to indicate a process failure when a single sheet of paper disrupts the crimping cycle. This level of sensitivity isn't practical for most manufacturing operations, but it does demonstrate the process variation monitor's capability. It's... Read more...
Article
July 25, 2002
Some 'near-jig' ideas
I'd like to have a conversation with you about my quality control philosophy. Given the constraints of this media, how about if I type and you read? Not much of a dialogue, but at least half of us are communicating. In the job shop, a critical area of skill and mastery is the setup. Once that's... Read more...
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