Most companies have long relied on standard engineering practices to guide their engineers as they work on product and tooling designs. Recent trends indicate that engineering guidelines are no longer relegated to these functions. Now, many companies and industries are expanding these engineering guidelines to include standards for product marking.
As governmental regulations and market forces dictate new product traceability and quality standards, many industries seek product marking specialists to partner with. One such marking specialist is Durable Mecco, located in Franklin Park, Illinois. Durable Mecco's focus is on industrial part marking applications utilizing impact presses, steel stamps, steel type, numbering heads, industrial inks, ink jet printers, and more.
Durable Mecco's technical expertise and engineering capabilities were enhanced when it acquired traditional marking products specialist Mecco / M.E. Cunningham, based in Pittsburgh, PA. Durable Mecco's value-added engineering capability has proven to be a critical resource for many companies and industries with a wide variety of custom marking applications.
Durable Mecco's impact presses (available as manual, pneumatic, or integrated) generate force via the compression and release of an impact spring. Impact presses are best suited for high-volume repetitive indent marking applications, as they achieve a short cycle time that cannot be met with any other marking method.
One such customer in need of a marking solution was SPX Filtran. The part to be marked was a dome-shaped stamped metal. It was specified that the marking should occur automatically as the part was inserted into a fixture, like a time card into a time slot.
The cycle time had to be short, as the operators were processing a high volume of parts. The shape of the part presented two challenges.
First, pressing the mark would deform the part without proper fixturing. Second, the shape of the part required the slot of the marking fixture to be large, so a pinch point hazard needed to be carefully prevented.
The SPX Filtran system also included a quick-change steel type holder, allowing SPX Filtran to achieve a high level of productivity in marking their parts.
In addition to marking, impact presses are also useful for assembly, stamping, forming, punching, and shearing applications. Ted Strother of King Electronics found that an impact is superior to gradual pressing in its application. "Durable Mecco was able to recommend an impact press in our assembly operation to insert one part into another without deforming the part. We used to perform this application by hand, but the press provides a quick, easy, repeatable solution."
The need to maintain basic safety precautions in all plant operations is sometimes lost in the never-ending search for improved productivity.
One such recent request came from General Electric to improve the safety of its manual marking applications. In this case, General Electric hand stamp operators were marking large characters with hand stamps and sledge hammers.
Durable Mecco designed its newest Safety First Grip for the stamp, which provides improved protection to the operator's hand. The Safety First Grip was designed to be non-intrusive while giving the operator a much more positive grip on the stamp while still achieving a clean, deep mark.
Another General Electric problem application required three marks to be made on a steel bracket. The goal was to find a cost-effective solution to enhance the consistency and quality of the mark while also improving productivity. Durable Mecco engineered a cost-effective fixture to support the part, resulting in improved mark alignment while also speeding up the marking process.
As marking and identification application requirements have expanded, so have Durable Mecco's capabilities and offerings. "A lot of customers use us as a one stop shop and come to us first for marking issues," says Clem Malinowski, General Manager. "More and more we act as marking consultants to help the customer work through the application and then direct them to the best solution."
Durable Mecco's versatility has been showcased as new customer requests have led to an expanded product offering beyond just impact presses, steel stamps, type, roll dies, and dot peen markers. New products include ink jet systems, package date coding type and dies, hot stamp ribbon, thermal ribbon, part marking, tags, industrial mil spec ink, and stencils. Durable Mecco has become the "go-to" source for many companies seeking marking and identification solutions.