weld fixture pin wear indications

[Markerinhand]

Hey guys,
New question today. I have been working with the weld engineers in coming up with a way to make worn fixture pins in our automated weld cells noticeable when worn beyond the min sizes. Currently we use calipers or micrometers (very rarely mics) to measure the pin. Obviously with a process that runs 6 days a week 3 shifts a day it is not possible to get that everyday and sometimes not possible every week. The operators try to measure. As the pin wears obviously fit up goes to crap.
One solution was mentioned to scribe a line to the wearable depth. One of the engineers said that's what Toyota does, but I have yet to find anything in regards to this.
We also thought if we could get a coating that was a complete noticeable color it might help?
Any thoughts?

 

[MikeHalloran]

For starters, you could use harder pins. See Carr-Lane, etc.

I suppose you could grind wear indicator grooves in the OD, and fill them with e.g. black paint. When the paint goes away, change the pin. I'm not aware that anyone sells such a thing from stock, but most any machine shop should want to have a recurring job like that.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA