×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

To part mark, or not to part mark

To part mark, or not to part mark

To part mark, or not to part mark

(OP)
I'm not sure if this is the best forum to pose this question, but since it does impact a note on a drawing I'll ask it here.

The company that I am at now is not accustomed to having sheet metal parts physically marked by any methods. I am from a background of commercial, semiconductor, and aerospace. In my experience, we part marked all of our parts either by bag and tag, peen, rubber stamp, engraving, roll marking, etc. I would like to have the parts manufactured for us to be identified by either rubber stamp, or bag and tag, but I am getting a little bit of resistance from others. I believe it is because it is something new to them.

I see the benefits of having a part marked being traceablity and part identification during assembly. Recently we had to similar enclosures going through assembly at the same time, and they were being used on the wrong builds. There was no part marking for easy identification.

What other pros are there to part marking, and what are the cons? What are you guys doing?

Thanks

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

mdambros,

I am drawing up a bunch of gaskets that look very similar to each other. A note on the drawing requiring part numbers be marked on the gaskets is one of several solutions that will prevent confusion at assembly time. I have in the past, added holes and chamfers to stuff as identification marks.

In general, I would say that marking part numbers is manufacturing's decision. If your parts look unique, and they are stored in numbered part bins, the numbers may not be necessary. Does your warehouse have have access to your drawings? You might not want ink or epoxy markings on your parts, and you might not want them stamped.

Read up on Poka Yoke.

--
JHG

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

We laser mark (or engrave) just about everything unless it (and sometimes even if) is a packaged device with an external label. Some of these are required from a regulatory standpoint e.g. CE marking. Typically our warehouse has to piece together a kit based upon a BOM where a description and part number will be listed; having a unique part number is potentially important due to similar looking items and the overall observation skills of the worker pulling the parts (or putting them back in the correct bin).

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Depending on the customer or contract, we laser mark whenever we can.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '16
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Quote:

Recently we had two similar enclosures going through assembly at the same time, and they were being used on the wrong builds. There was no part marking for easy identification.

Is that experience not a sufficient justification all by itself?

At least scribble a number on with a Sharpie.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

We part number stamp all military parts and many parts for some other OEM customers as required by their print or contract. Whenever possible this is done on sheet metal in the cutting program with number stamps and it costs very little to add. A few parts are laser etched if we delivery them unpainted. Other parts are engraved with a peening system or hard stamped at another stage in fabrication. This requires an extra handling so costs more to add. And some items are ink stamped or sharpie marked after paint. For our own product line of electrical enclosures we add serialized labels for UL and labels of the model numbers and build date.

The least expensive method for us is marking with our combination laser and punching machine.

Diego

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Consider ink-jet marking systems, also.

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Bag and tag -- the -37 marking method from the SAE specification. We use it often.
Sorry, memory fails me at the moment to give the actual specification number.

--Scott
www.wertel.pro

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Some, not all, customers require the bag and tag method. Some require some type of adhesive label.
Black marker will come off if cleaned with chemicals, or eventually fade.
Besides all methods, my suggestion is to (2D or text) laser mark or engrave, even if additional marking.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '16
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Interesting question, we often face this issue also. For those of you that bin your parts, and/or do not tag them individually, how do you handle traceability and tracking the material back to the MTR's?

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

Without bag/tag, or marking, it's too difficult to track parts. They easily get mixed up.
For aerospace/military, they have to get marked somehow.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '16
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

RE: To part mark, or not to part mark

If implementing the ASME Y14.100 rules on when it's a revision V a part number change, and if you've got a good quality system in place, then not being able to tell parts of a given part number apart shouldn't be an issue as they are fully interchangeable.

If traceability is a concern for some reason then yes you need a more robust system.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources