Access Machine Case History:

METAL

Customer Background:

National Steel Corporation is headquartered in Mishawaka, Indiana. It is the fourth largest steel company in the U.S., with approximately 6 million tons of raw steel produced in one year. The Great Lakes Division is a supplier of flat-rolled steel products. They supply steel to the following industries: automotive, construction, container, appliance tubing and piping.

(Note: All Customer Background information was obtained from the 1996 National Association of Colleges and Employers web page at www.jobweb.org/employer/Natsteel.htm.)

Project Background:

This project is very similar to the Engelogica project. Both are monitoring systems but in very different industries and operating on different platforms. Great Lakes Steel purchased the AccessPoint system for quality assurance monitoring of their steel sheet metal.

Customer Needs:

• High speed archiving system for quality analysis
• Ability to monitor minute variances in the product graphically, with several variables on one graph

The Access Machine Solution:

The AccessPoint system monitors the steel beam for length and thickness as it passes through a sensor. Every part of the metal is recorded on a graph. The graph displays time (on the x axis), length is shown in both forward and reverse mode depending on which way the steel is being rolled and another part of the same graph displays the thickness of the steel. On this graph, it is immediately visible to the user if anything is out of spec. All the information is archived for later retrieval. Much like Engelogica, Great Lakes uses this information for quality assurance. They can easily isolate problem areas and make changes as necessary.

• Improved product quality - the high speed archiving information allows users to find where a problem is occurring quickly and correct it. Steel that does not meet the correct specifications will be detected more easily.
• Coincidental - the above benefit improves customer satisfaction, profits and productivity.