Datum pins you can find

Pins walk

Datum pins are small and valuable. They end up in overall pockets, in the swarf bin, or in a cup on someone's bench. Without them, a fixture is just a plate with holes and setups drift.

Shadow foam fixes it

Give every pin its own cut-out in a foam tray next to the plate. An empty cut-out is obvious at a glance. Count pins at shift close as part of the care routine.

Keep spares

Order a few extra pins with the kit and keep them in the fast bin. When one goes missing, the job carries on and the search happens later.

The slip we see most

Using a bolt as a stand-in pin for one job and leaving it in the fixture.

How you know it is working

The pin count is correct at every shift close, and spares stay in the bin.

Written by Thabo Molefe, Plasma Cell Lead. Thabo specs the plasma tables, fixture plates and consumable shelves for steel shops.