A 30-year-old production stamper builds sensors into the die for zero-defect part manufacturing.

Sensors Make Good Sense to Progressive Die Stamper

A 30-year-old production stamper, The Su-Dan Corporation, finds that sensors make a lot of business sense in its progressive die operations. So says Chuck Grace, manufacturing support manager for the Rochester Hills, MI, company. Su-Dan has been applying and evolving die sensing technologies as a major supplier of zero-defect automotive seat track components and refrigerator parts for the appliance industry. “We build the sensors right into the die,” notes Grace. “We do not employ remote sensing. Many of our parts are small and we often are sensing only a fraction of their area, so we need small sensors that we can mount right where the action is. Usually there is an inch or less of stand-off.” Sensors range in size from 5 mm to 30 mm. Grace and Bob Haase, corporate tooling manager, evaluate CAD/CAM drawings for new dies and decide the best place to locate sensors to verify processes and check part dimensions. They even may recommend design changes to the die to better accommodate sensors. However small, the sensors need to be extremely rugged and reliable, stresses Grace. By process of trial and error, Su-Dan and its automation consultant, E&E Engineering, Warren, MI, have standardized on Balluff, Inc., as a sensor supplier. “We’ve tried many different makes 0f sensors and it’s pretty common for them to fail to work right out of the box; or they tend to short out,” says Grace. “I never have that trouble with sensors from Balluff. That’s why I continue to go back to them. If something happens to one of the Balluff sensors, it’s because something happened in the tool, such as getting hit.”

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