Question

Physically tracking parts after being painted

  • 26 March 2021
  • 6 replies
  • 488 views
M

Hi Team-
I am looking for some solutions to help my organization track parts after they leave the paint shop.

Currently, paper job travelers move with the parts, but after being painted, they usually do not make it back to the part.

This leaves out kitting team scrambling trying to figure out which part is in their possession.

I have looked into paintable barcode labels, but the various size metal fabricated parts make it an issue. I am currently researching RFID, but I do not know if that will work either.

How do you handle this at your plant?

Example of parts attached:

Thanks!!!

1 Attachment

6 replies

T
Userlevel 3

Hi Marcus

Depending on the part use and the allowable tolerances on the part you could look at etching the part numbers onto the parts. I worked for a sheet metal fabricator in the past and depending on what the part was used for and the customer requirements this was an effective solution.

It’s not perfect and depending on the type of paint finish the etching isn’t always visible after the painting process.

There is also the additional cost of the etching but generally this was lower than the lost time in tracing parts.

Tim

D

Hi Marcus

 

I don’t have a solution for you but I am interested in following your investigations.

We are going through a similar investigation at present. We have sheetmetal parts that come off the turret punch or laser cutter that then go through a folding process and for some parts also a powder coating process.

Currently we use paper documents that (should) travel with the parts to identify the sheetmetal panel and the folding process required in order to call the appropriate folding program.

We have already looked at laser marking a QR code that can be read by scanners when we need to identify a part. But once the panel is painted the QR code is no longer visible.

We are considering a self adhesive label that can be applied after powder coating.

We have considered using labels from the when the cut panels are first produced but the concern is that movement within a stack of panels may destroy the labels between the panels to a point that they are no longer readable.

We are also considering optical recognition. This does work well while the panel is flat but once folded the 3D analysis becomes more complex, but we will investigate this further.

 

David P

 

R

Hi Marcus

Unfortunately no solution but we do a couple of things that try and help the situation.

  1. We put the drawing on the back of the traveller.
  2. Etch part numbers on some items
  3. For the large items we put labels in the traveller bag to attach once powder coated.
  4. They are powder coated on bars so all travellers grouped together.

Optical recognition from the CAD drawing would be amazing.
 

Regards


Richard


 

M

Hi Marcus

 

I don’t have a solution for you but I am interested in following your investigations.

We are going through a similar investigation at present. We have sheetmetal parts that come off the turret punch or laser cutter that then go through a folding process and for some parts also a powder coating process.

Currently we use paper documents that (should) travel with the parts to identify the sheetmetal panel and the folding process required in order to call the appropriate folding program.

We have already looked at laser marking a QR code that can be read by scanners when we need to identify a part. But once the panel is painted the QR code is no longer visible.

We are considering a self adhesive label that can be applied after powder coating.

We have considered using labels from the when the cut panels are first produced but the concern is that movement within a stack of panels may destroy the labels between the panels to a point that they are no longer readable.

We are also considering optical recognition. This does work well while the panel is flat but once folded the 3D analysis becomes more complex, but we will investigate this further.

 

David P

 


Hi David-

Thanks for your input.

Would these labels work for you? https://www.general-data.com/products/labels/specialty-labels/paintmask-labels

I am considering the above, but the problem for us would be the smaller parts.  On the smaller parts, I was thinking maybe punch a small hole in the label and maybe zip-tie to the part.

 

I am also looking into laser marking. 

 

As for your optical recognition, could you provide the product you are researching? This could be interesting.  Even though some parts do go through a bending process.  Would this be able to identify just the type of part or more detailed information? Job etc.

 

When I think about it all, there MUST be a solution for this.  I'm pretty sure Tesla isn't being bottlenecked by this :)

 

Thanks for everyone's feedback and support!

M

Hi Marcus

Depending on the part use and the allowable tolerances on the part you could look at etching the part numbers onto the parts. I worked for a sheet metal fabricator in the past and depending on what the part was used for and the customer requirements this was an effective solution.

It’s not perfect and depending on the type of paint finish the etching isn’t always visible after the painting process.

There is also the additional cost of the etching but generally this was lower than the lost time in tracing parts.

Tim


Hi @Tim.Berryman -

Could you recall what etching product was used?

mwilson
Userlevel 4

The job number is critical; we’ve used a bar code label that contains various job info but most critically the job number, and when it can’t be stuck onto the parts we put them on a pallet and label the pallet.  As you’ve said travelers get lost and can be reprinted.

..Monty. Monty Wilson, Vice-President North America, Epicor Users Group

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