Introduction

Until recently, wire rod coil manufacturers have been in a Catch-22 situation when it came to attaching identification to the coils of wire they produced. Plastic and paper tags had the potential to make the inventory process easier with their ability to hold bar-coded information, virtually eliminating human error as a factor. These tags were able to survive the process of pickling - immersion in heated baths of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid for periods of up to 90 minutes at a time. However, when it came to the process of annealing - baking the wire at temperatures of 1,400°F or greater for extended periods of time - these tags would vanish in a puff of smoke. Applying tags after the annealing process meant a wait of several days until the coils cooled to a more tag-friendly temperature. This opened the door to more potential for human error.

Metal tags breezed through the annealing process, but in some cases would not survive pickling. Bar-coding systems for metal tags were not suitable for all industrial applications. This meant the use of manual inventory control, which again meant the risk of human error. Further, the machines to stamp the dog tags were noisy and the upkeep was high.

The first touch-free, laser-markable tag system

This was the state of the industry in 1998, when Ontario’s Ivaco Rolling Mill, one of the world’s largest producers of wire, approached InfoSight Corporation, USA. “At the time, we needed more than the existing tag technology offered,” said Mr Yves Levac, Ivaco’s Operations Supervisor. “We had an old embossing machine we used to manually punch out metal tags for the rolls. We would put what information we could on them and produce the tags by order. It was time consuming and expensive, and if there was a change in the schedule, the new tags were useless. With laser scanning technology everywhere you looked, we knew there had to be a way to develop a better system.”

Qualitag® on-site metal tag printer

As a designer of custom identification solutions for the metals industry, InfoSight created the first touch-free, laser-markable tag system in 1995. Now Ivaco wanted to use that technology for an automated inventory system. But according to Mr Levac, of primary importance was the tag’s ability to carry lots of information. “After they’re produced, the coils go into inventory in the yard. We wanted to use wireless scanning technology to check those coils for quality assurance approval, and to make sure they went to the right customer. Bar-coding would give us that and other information, like which client the batch was for, the diameter of the wire and the heat number. Scanning would put all of that information at our fingertips.” In addition, the tag needed the ability to survive the harsh processes of pickling and annealing - not just by the manufacturer, but by the customers as well. As Ivaco described it, the ideal tag would be attached to the wire bundle once and would not have to be removed for any part of the downstream process. Such a tag would give Ivaco cradle-to-grave tracking with superior inventory control to insure clients of a quality product. Ivaco needed a system that could deliver one tag every 11 seconds. “Because of the nature of the business, it was important to have tags delivered to us in real-time,” Mr Levac commented.

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A two-hour resistance tag to acid baths

Soon after InfoSight began work on the project, complications developed. Tests of tag formulations showed it could withstand the pickling and annealing process, only to fail when reprocessed by Ivaco’s customers. It turned out that each of Ivaco’s customers had their own set of specifications in regard to processing times, acid concentrations and baking times. This required feedback from each client. “It took three to six months of research and development and working with InfoSight to get the tags right,” Mr Levac explained. “They would make test tags for us. We would run them through our process, then send them to our clients and have them send them through their processes. Then we would gather up the test results and meet with InfoSight to discuss what worked, what hadn’t and why.”

Pic-Anneal laser-marked tags measure 3” by 6”

At the end of this time, InfoSight developed a tag that met Ivaco’s needs - and would withstand the rigors put upon it by the processes of their different customers. Their Pic-Anneal® tag has a two-hour resistance to acid baths of 20 per cent H2SO4 at 180°F and 24 per cent HCl at 100°F. It also withstands 1,400°F heat for 48 hours and 1,800°F for 2 hours. The Pic-Anneal® laser-marked tags measure 3” by 6” and sport a hole punched near the top for easy attaching to wire coils. The tags are marked with a standard CO2 laser, resulting in black print across the light gray surface. The bar codes printed on the tags are readable by any standard bar code reader.

Providing excellent customer service by discussing their work

Another example of InfoSight’s reputation for providing excellent customer service is their collaboration with the American company Chartel Steel that produces hot rolled steel in rod and bar form, as well as annealed rod bar and wire. By the end of the 1990’s, they realizsed that modern technology had to offer a better way to provide cradle-to-grave identification of their products than what was currently available. The initial challenge was to find something that could withstand both the extreme temperatures of the annealing process and the harsh acid baths of pickling. Unfortunately, there was nothing that would, and Charter had to stick with the industry standard “dog tags,” a piece of metal embossed with a minimal amount of information. “The dog tags just were not suitable,” explained Mr Tim Leahy, Charter’s Senior Project Metallurgist. “Seventy per cent of our coils are shipped across the street to our own processing division. Getting the information from one place to the other was a major issue. We needed to convey things like the size and grade of the product, the customer it was for and their purchase order number, the size of the material, the grade of steel, the heat number, and our own identification number. When you consider our production capacity, the ability to scan becomes critical.”

Indeed, Charter produces upwards of 300 coils during the course of an eight-hour shift. In order to properly track the coils, they needed their tags produced in real time, requiring two embossing machines in order to keep up with the output. “The whole system of using dog tags was a nightmare,” Mr Leahy said. “The machines that made them were awful. We called them ‘thumpers’ because they were these unwieldy monsters that vibrated themselves to death after a period of time. We had to buy three of them in order to have two running at any given time, and we were considering buying a fourth.” Mr Leahy also reported that the lack of a computer interface between the mill’s inventory control software and the thumpers created a human error problem. “The bumpy bar codes were unsuitable for what we were doing. We basically put information on a screen in front of an operator and had them type it into the thumper, hoping to keep mistakes to a minimum. The frustration was enormous.”

Charter knew the solution to their problem was a bar-code system, but finding a tag that would carry the laser-readable black marks through pickling and annealing was another matter. The company went through a number of tags that either tore off because of their light weight, or became smudged or banged up when the coils were moved. “We did have one tag that performed well, but on 15 to 20 percent of them the readers could not scan the bar code. It was better than what we had before, but it still wasn’t good enough”, Mr Leahy said. At that point Charter came to InfoSight. “We called them up and told them about our frustrations with the thumpers and the other tags we’d tried. When they heard that, they laughed. They guaranteed that their system would work”. InfoSight sent Charter some sample formulations of tags to test and discovered that some survived the process even through they were not meant to. “These tags had a survival rate of 98, 99 per cent, and we said we could live with that. It was a real eureka moment” Mr Leahy said. InfoSight jumped on this information in order to tweak the formulation so it would best suit Charter’s needs.

Once the new formulas were tested, Charter was ready to go online with the new system. Unfortunately, a new set of problems surfaced that complicated matters. Research found that the annealing process changes the chemical characteristics in the tag’s coating that left it susceptible to damage during the repeat of the pickling. This led to a 3 to 5 per cent failure rate, more than twice the original. InfoSight reformulated the tags, working on new formulations. A secondary issue Charter had with the InfoSight product was what their customers would think of the tags. Thirty per cent of Charter’s product goes to outside clients, and there is no control over how it is processed. Mr Leahy admits there was some trepidation over what would happen to the tags, and even set up a separate tagging system for outbound product. However, since the beginning of 2002, they have received no complaints on the Pic-Anneal tags.

Other challenges

In addition to this project, InfoSight tackled a number of other challenges, including the development of a tag that could survive the impact of a fork truck. Such challenges are what they thrive on as the nation’s premiere creator of fully developed custom identification solutions, including tags, printers and the machines to apply the tags. As Mr Ed O’Neal, InfoSight’s Laser Product Manager, says, “If someone has a tagging need that can be solved with a slip of paper, turn them away. We want the tough stuff… the kind of jobs that make other companies cringe… the kinds of jobs that other companies cannot do. This is what we have built our business and our reputation on”.

About InfoSight Corp.

Infosight Corporation provides the industry with thermal transfer metal tags, via its Qualitag® on-site metal tag printer. Qualitag® produces high contrast, 200dpi metal tags at low cost. The new innovative two-step thermal technology is fast, quiet and requires low maintenance. The tags bear high quality bar codes, man readable characters, logos and other variable messages. These durable metal tags are chemical resistant and can survive outdoor elements for extended periods of time. They can withstand oven temperatures of 550°F. Tag configurations include 3 and 4 inch widths, 1 to 12 inch lengths, with holes, slots, and break off sections. QUALITAG material is available in steel and aluminium.

Infotag® line of metal tags

In addition, the company manufactures a high reliability, on-site laser bar code printer for its Infotag® line of metal tags. High-temperature tags produced from 430 series stainless steel survive contact temperatures of up to 1,800°F (1,000°C). Other base metals are available for lower temperature applications. Specially formulated coatings are highly resistant to acids and other harsh chemicals. Tag configurations include 3 and 4 inch widths, 3/8 to 24 inch lengths with holes, slots, break-off and fold-over sections.