The company where I worked used a variety of tapes for many purposes in wire and cable manufacturing. One of the uses involves wraps for mechanical and electrical purposes, as well as laminated-metal tapes commonly used for shielding. One day, we received a visit by a supplier of such tapes.
The young salesman who showed up that day was very excited about a new tape his employer was producing for cable shielding. Rather than the conventional laminated construction, this new type of tape featured an electrodeposited aluminum coating. The advantages he touted included lower cost and lighter weight.
I asked about coating thickness. According to the product information, it was very thin. I was surprised by how thin it was. I then asked, "With a clear backing, how will an operator know which side is conductive?" As a note, laminated tapes use a tinted laminating adhesive, often blue, so you can easily distinguish the back from the front. This is an important matter, since the conductive side of a tape shield must be in contact with the drain wire.
Since I couldn’t tell much of a difference by looking at it, I noted that we should easily be able to determine the answer by using an ohmmeter or other continuity-testing device. We trotted off to the lab to do a quick test. To our mutual surprise, there was no discernible conductivity on either side of the tape. The electrodeposited coating was so thin that virtually none of the metal atoms were “holding hands.” The new tape had been manufactured and launched, apparently, without anyone recognizing this problem.
This entry was submitted by Peter M. Blackford and edited by Rob Spiegel.
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That is ridiculous! If YOU can test and see such a flaw so quickly and easily how could they miss it. Did the almighty dollar hamper judgement? I can't even believe that though.
Thanks, Tool_maker, for that input. It sounds like either SPC software needs to be adapted a lot to individual industries and/or specific manufacturers, which may take too much time and cost in engineer hours, or that users might benefit from industry-specific packages, kind of like what's emerging in industrial robotics. I know from covering machine vision that the first is sometimes simply not done for the reasons given (although the "too much" may be due to perception or procrastination), and that the second has not been successful because the technology is used so differently by each end user.
Ann. I am sure every phase of manufacturing comes complete with its own set of problems unique to that area. I work in the stamping industry and maybe it has more variables than other areas, but rarely do SPC parameters written for maching operations serve any purpose other than to frustrate stampers.
The problem in this case involved the grain produced in the raw steel when it was produced in a rolling mill. When you form the material with the grain it reacts one way and when formed across the grain it reacts another. The parts in question were round so the forming went in every direction possible. As a result points checked 90 degrees apart would have a wide variance, with one on the low side of the tolerance and the other on the high side. Both within tolerance, but with a wide enough difference that when subjected to the SPC procedure the resulting formulation flagged an out of control process that would yield bad parts.
Our eventual solution was to only check parts in a restrained condition similar to that in which they would eventually mount onto the earth mover. The biggest problem we encountered was convincing the customer QC head that his methods developed in machining raw stock and castings, were worthless when working with stampings.
There are many cases where sensors have been mounted in stamping dies to monitor and grade parts before they even exit the tool, but sometimes I think "hands on" is the only way possible to properly evaluate the product.
On re-reading Tool_maker's story I realized that not only was that inspection process flawed, but it apparently left out information that only a human could supply. I wonder whether the automatic SPC process could be adjusted with the correct information, or whether it would always take a human's explanation. In other words, can we really automate everything in QC?
Good point, Ann. While I see many economic metrics that are similar to the early 1980s, I agree that our distribution of wealth and the distribution of opportunity has changed dramatically from 30 years ago. That means fewer good jobs as a percentage of what is out there, particularly for young people.
Rob, I see your parallel with the early 80s, but so much has changed since then, including way more people and a shift to lower-paying service jobs that I don't think there are nearly enough good, mortgage-paying jobs for all of us, younger or older, in manufacturing. Or did you mean something different?
I'm still optimistic, Ann. We're seeing a lot of innovation now. This time reminds me of the early 80s. We were roaring in high tech innovation while unemployment was still very high. Eventually the innovation created jobs, which created more jobs.
Once we get more jobs, the 20-something post-grad kids will move out of their parents' home and drive housing growth.
Thanks for that summary, Rob. That's really too bad--heartening news on one hand about a really important trend, and not so happy news about the employment scene (and the ongoing mortgage scandal fallout).
Yes, given the advances in mnaufacturing, we would actually be in pretty good economic shape is we still had a housing industry and we weren't in the middle of massive layoffs of city and state workers.
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