The plate placement method of evaluating defects in the plated area is a good approach to use when inspecting your installed connector plates. But are you recording the results correctly?
Using the plate placement method, it is common to record folded teeth or damaged teeth with a rectangle representing the ineffective teeth. This is always done in pairs, because a visible folded tooth generally hides its partner tooth folded under the body of the plate. To do this, most folks have a general rectangle and size to reflect the defect.
But did you know that the size depends on the connector plate? In the first photo, several different styles of connectors show some of the variations. Usually the biggest difference will exist between high strength and regular gauge connectors within a plant’s plate inventory. Each of these connectors would have a different rectangle representation.
The correct method to determine the proper and accurate rectangle is to think about the connector in total. For example, a 4 x 5 Morton 20 gauge plate has 12 sets of teeth. Folded teeth would be recorded as 1/12 the area of the plate, 1.66 square inches, or a 1 ¼ x 1 ¼ square. The example below illustrates the graphical representation of a 16 gauge high strength connector. The tooth area represents the boundary where one tooth ends and the other begins.
A simple way to evaluate a rectangle is to ask the question: Does the rectangle represent the percentage of the total plate size? If it does, then your representation is correct.
Different plate styles require different defect marks representing the percentage of teeth sets for the particular size connector. Keeping these thoughts in mind while inspecting your plates will help ensure that your defect records are accurate.