Setters are few and each is hard to replace: HR for cold forging units

The six-station former has been stopped since the morning changeover went wrong. The heads are coming out with a fold under the flange, and the transfer is dropping one blank in every few strokes. The day setter is already wrestling a two-die bolt-maker across the bay. The only other person who can set the six-station is on leave until Monday. So the machine waits, the order waits, and the owner learns again how much of his unit rests on two pairs of hands.

Cold forging runs fast, often unattended, on spheroidised wire coil carrying a phosphate and stearate coat. Bringing each header into rhythm, then holding size, is the setter's job. Most units employ only a few, and losing any one of them hurts for months.

• Cut-off. Quill and knife condition, cut length and the clean square end that every later blow depends on.
• Stack-up. Punch and die inserts, shims behind the dies, and the knock-out pin settings at each station.
• Transfer. Finger grip, timing and the handover of each blank from station to station without a drop or a tilt.
• Stroke and tonnage. How hard each station works, which decides tool life and whether the heads fill or crack.
• First heads. Checking head height, hex across flats, washer-face, socket recess, underhead fillet and shank diameter, then judging the machine fit to run alone.
• When to stop. Reading the sound, the parts in the chute and the wear on the inserts before a batch of bad heads goes to thread rolling.

That combination takes years to learn, and it shifts with the machine. A man fluent on a two-die three-blow bolt-maker can flounder on a six-station part former.

The obvious bill is idle formers waiting for the right setter. Less visible is start-up scrap that swings with whoever did the changeover. Night shifts often run on settings nobody on site can correct. Faults may surface weeks later at heat treatment, plating, the eddy-current sorter or the customer's line. And the few setters you have become overloaded. They are called to every stoppage, kept late for every changeover and phoned on their day off. Overloaded setters make more mistakes, and they are quickest to take a phone call from the fastener works down the lane.

Several habits keep setters scarce. Setters are often on the same grade structure as operators, with a little extra, so the step up looks small and the risk looks large. They spend their shifts firefighting minor stops that a trained operator could handle, which leaves no time to teach. Tooling and machine purchases are decided without asking them. A deputy for each machine family is seldom planned until the incumbent resigns. And fastener and auto parts units in the same estate know exactly who the good setters are.

1. 1

   Draw a setter depth chart

   Machine families across the top, setters down the side, and a mark where each can change over and run alone. Any family with one mark is your first problem.

2. 2

   Grade by header family

   Distinct grades running operator, assistant setter, setter, senior setter, each cleared family by family. Pin every grade's pay step on the notice board.

3. 3

   Plan a second setter for every family

   Choose an assistant setter or a careful operator for each single-mark family, and book practice changeovers on repeat parts.

4. 4

   Take firefighting off the setters

   Teach operators the wear signals for each header and the small adjustments they may make. Setters get called for real problems, and gain time to teach.

5. 5

   Write a setup sheet per part

   Inserts, shims, cut length, transfer settings and first-head checks, written with the setter and kept at the machine.

6. 6

   Give setters a voice on tooling

   Ask them before buying inserts, switching wire suppliers or adding a machine family. Setters linger where their opinion shapes the purchase.

Setting pay steps for setters and die fitters against nearby fastener and precision units is covered on the cold forging benchmarking page. Clear duties for each setter grade, and a route for inspectors alongside them, come from role design in cold forging.

Setter scarcity and die room scarcity usually travel together. The senior die fitter who refurbishes punches and inserts is often close to retirement, and the senior setter learnt beside him. Plan both successions at once. Pairing juniors with each senior, then reviewing progress, is laid out under succession for die fitters and setters. Teaching operators to spot insert wear before it spoils a batch is covered in wear-signal training for header operators.

Draw the depth chart on one sheet. Circle every machine family with a single setter. Ask that setter what takes up his shift, and how much of it a trained operator could handle. Those two answers point to the first changes. For the wider trade, see people issues across forging and forming and the overview for cold forging units. The ladder from operator upward is described in growing setters from operators. For help with setter grades and a second-setter plan, share what you need.