Torquestar Achieves Thorough, Efficient Torque Auditing

1998
As part of its ISO9002 quality assurance system, Numatic wanted to improve the control of the fastening processes on the production line of its industrial and commercial cleaning equipment, including the well known ‘Henry’ model. The company purchased a TorqueStar III torque auditor from Crane Electronics with the added advantage of being able to record the performance of the air-powered wrenches or guns for downloading to a PC.

Under the current regime, every gun on the production line is checked weekly, though this period may be extended if the TorqueStar shows that the guns’ settings are not drifting within that time. Being able to record the evidence makes it far easier to control the auditing procedure than the old system, where the recording was entirely operator-dependent. With the TorqueStar, every reading is time and date stamped automatically, and the memory can retain up to 20,000 readings.

To minimise disruption, Numatic wanted a torque auditing system that would allow guns to be removed from the production line for the shortest possible time. The TorqueStar has therefore been mounted on a trolley that can be wheeled around the various assembly stations. Each gun is checked three times and the results are stored automatically. By entering the gun's unique serial number on the TorqueStar, the operator ensures that a complete history for that gun can be collated. In addition to the torque auditor, Crane supplied a transducer with a fitted joint kit - which replicates the joint characteristics of the products being assembled.