A manufacturer's disciplined approach to troubleshooting component problems

Collection of information is a key component of troubleshooting failure in the sheet metal shop. FG Trade/E+

Your press shop is exposed to many different types of failure: die cracking and chipping, punch wear-out, blanks placed incorrectly, bearing failure, die crashes, sheet metal splitting, wrinkling, and dimples, to name just a few. Skill, knowledge, and discipline are necessary to troubleshoot these problems quickly.

A Crucial Skill

Troubleshooting is a crucial and complex skill on the plant floor. An employee in this position must be able to:

• Identify the important attributes of an issue.
• Understand the material and process variables that may contribute to the problem.
• Isolate the source of the problem.
• Recommend a solution.

Experience is an important contributor to an employee’s troubleshooting skills, so manufacturers are facing added challenges as the workforce ages and retires. And material properties and forming processes are becoming more complex, making older troubleshooting methods obsolete. Just a few decades ago, the tensile properties of conventional steels were in a 200 to 550 MPa. Today’s available steels can have tensile properties of more than 2,000 MPa. While conventional steels had elongation percentages of about 10% to 50%, today’s advanced high-strength steels start at about 4%.

A Disciplined Approach

The combination of losing experienced employees and the increased complexity in materials, equipment, and processes demands a disciplined approach to troubleshooting. This approach guides employees through the issues that can lead to failure, helps employees learn about potential issues, and documents progress to both encourage participation and record lessons learned. Combined with detailed knowledge of the complex variables of sheet metal forming, a disciplined approach develops in employees the skills and insights to make them effective at troubleshooting.

A disciplined process promotes thoroughness and ensure that the solutions you pursue will have a high probability of resolving the failure. A failure in discipline can lead to an expensive trial-and-error approach to resolving issues, which may create additional problems.

A disciplined troubleshooting approach typically follows the following steps.

Collect Information. Your first step is to collect information about the problem that was discovered. It’s important to understand who discovered the issue, the location where it was first noticed, what the details of the issue are, and the effect and criticality of the failure.

Describe the Problem. The next step is to form a comprehensive description of the problem. These questions can help:

• What are the symptoms of the problem?
• When and how frequently does the problem occur?
• Where does the issue exist (a specific part of a machine or an exact failure location on the formed component)?
• What are the operating conditions and process variables when the problem occurs (forming speed, tonnage monitor readings, blank orientation)?
• Is the issue reproducible?

Identify the Most Probable Root Causes. Armed with answers to these questions, you can begin to determine the most probable causes of the identified failure.

In complex manufacturing, certain failures can have many possible root causes. For example, forming splits can be caused by variability in the blank’s mechanical properties, improperly applied lubrication, damaged blank components, improper blank dimensions, blank thickness variability, press speed issues, and press imbalance. Often, the most logical or simplest cause is the culprit. Failure modes and effects analysis can help you identify probable root causes of failure ahead of time, which supports effective maintenance planning and root cause identification.

Plan Remedial Actions. Once you’ve identified the root cause, you should develop a plan to fix the issue and prevent it from happening again. This might include instructions to implement your solution, as well as instructions to maintain material and equipment to prevent further occurrence.

Implement Your Solution. Your goal is to return your equipment or materials to a state that prevents failure. This may involve equipment adjustment, die repair, improved material properties monitoring, lift rotation, or other remedial actions. Your solution should also include recommendations for maintenance and monitoring to prevent further issues.

Document Your Activity and Solutions. Building a continuing record of troubleshooting activities will serve to instruct others when similar failures occur. Documenting also helps identify process and maintenance inefficiencies that must be fixed.