First the humor. I had an Engineer working for me that had the same task. He proudly showed me the first completed sets that he had engraved the tool information on and how easy they were to read. He unfortunately had put it on the critical surface of the tool. My response of course was " well you really did a number on that tool". Remember the movie " The Graduate" where the guy came up and said "Plastics". Well " dot peening a 2-D data matrix" is the path. Pretty impervious and links to a data file that you can update and maintain and all they have to do is scan it in whenever they are doing anything with the tool. The possibilities are endless. Dewey -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Gregory Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 12:39 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Swage Tooling Identification Good Afternon All! I've taken on trying to get our swage tooling in order. As a contract assembly company, you can imagine how many anvil and punch sets we have. The problem is trying to put some sort of identification on each piece so that it's easily identifiable, to easily keep things in order. Most manufacturers (like Cambion) will have a part number stamped on each piece, but over time the number will become very difficult to read and I think that somewhat contributes to things becoming a disarray. People can't read the number easily, so they just put it in the first drawer they open (I have a nuts and bolts cabinet with small drawers for each set). I can organize things properly and then go back a week or two later, and everything is mixed-up again. Then the operators come tell me that they can't find the proper swaging tooling they need. I go and dig through all the drawers and finally find it...well I'm tired of doing that. So I'm asking what you all do to keep your swage tooling organized. Stamping numbers is pretty tough because most of the tools are hardened tool steel, tough to stamp that stuff...an engraver might work though. I just want to ask what you all do...I'm tired of having to spend more time tracking down tooling I know we have, than it does to actually do the job. Kind regards, -Steve Gregory- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------