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Manufacturing & Industry 4.0

Tool, Die & Mould Tracking System

A press stops because the die that should be on it is at a vendor, or has run past its maintenance shot count. We build the tool tracking system for manufacturing that holds every die, mould and fixture by location, custody, actual shots run and maintenance due date.

Tags That Survive

High-temperature, oil-resistant RFID and marked identities selected and trialled on your own tools first.

Shots Counted By Machine

Cycle counts taken from the press or moulding machine signal, not from a logbook filled later.

Maintenance On Usage

Preventive maintenance triggered at actual shot thresholds, not on a calendar date nobody trusts.

Complete Tool Visibility

Track location, custody, usage, maintenance history and tool cost from one connected system.

Our Tool, Die & Mould Tracking System

A complete tool control capability - identification, custody, usage capture, maintenance triggering and costing - engineered for press shops, moulding units and machining plants, and supported after commissioning.

1. Rugged Tool Identification & Tagging
Identification is where most tool tracking projects fail. A tag that comes off after a week of heat, oil and handling makes the dataset worthless, so selection begins with a survey of your worst tools.

Key Capabilities:

High-temperature metal-mount RFID tags rated for press and mould conditions
Embedded, pocketed or bolted tag mounting engineered per tool type
Laser-marked or dot-peen 2D codes as a permanent backup identity
Survivability trial on your own tools before the specification is frozen
2. Location, Custody & Vendor Movement
The question is rarely just where a tool is, but who holds it and since when. Tools out at a sharpening or repair vendor are the ones that disappear from the production plan.

Key Capabilities:

Rack, bay and machine-level location from fixed and handheld reads
Custody against tool room, operator, maintenance or external vendor
Gate pass raised, tracked and closed for every tool leaving site
Ageing alerts on tools held beyond agreed vendor turnaround time
3. Shot Count Capture & Tool Life
Shots are read from the machine itself and credited to the tool actually mounted, so a die carries its true cumulative life across every press it has ever run on.

Key Capabilities:

Cycle signal taken from press or IMM controller via PLC
Automatic tool-to-machine binding at mounting through an RFID read
Cumulative and since-maintenance shot counters per tool and cavity
Warning and hard-stop thresholds before designed tool life is exceeded
4. Tool Room Workflow, PM & Costing
The tool room needs a controlled issue and return process, and the plant manager needs to know what each tool costs per part. Both run off the same usage record.

Key Capabilities:

Issue, return, inspection and condition capture at the tool room counter
Preventive maintenance work orders triggered on shot count, not calendar
Breakdown, repair and spare part history held against each tool
Tool cost per part, refurbishment spend and replacement forecasting

Technologies That Power Our Solutions

Technology choice here is decided by the environment. We survey the shop floor, the tool store and the vendor route before selecting tags, readers or marking method.

High-Temperature & Metal-Mount RFID
Passive UHF tags built for metal surfaces and elevated temperature, mounted so they survive press impact, mould heat and cleaning cycles.

Applications:

Die and mould identity Rack location reads Gate pass scanning Mount confirmation
Fixed Readers, Portals & Handhelds
Reader placement is engineered around actual movement paths, so reads happen without anyone changing the way tools are physically handled today.

Applications:

Tool store portals Machine-side readers Gate portals Stock verification handhelds
Machine Signal Integration
Cycle counts are taken from the controller or a retrofitted sensor and attributed to the tool currently bound to that machine.

Applications:

Press stroke counting IMM cycle capture PLC tag reads Retrofit proximity sensing
Permanent Marking & 2D Codes
Laser or dot-peen marked codes give an identity that cannot detach, used alongside RFID for verification and for recovering unreadable tags.

Applications:

Backup identity Vendor-side scanning Insert and cavity marking Audit verification

Industry Success Stories

Representative outcomes from tool-intensive manufacturing deployments. Figures are indicative ranges and must be confirmed against your own baseline before publication.

Sheet Metal Press Shops
Multi-press stamping operations running large progressive and transfer dies through several changeovers every working day.

Results Achieved:

Die search time before changeover reduced by 40-60%
Unplanned die failures reduced through usage-based maintenance
Tools untraceable at physical verification reduced sharply
Injection Moulding & Die Casting
Moulding units managing multi-cavity tools with widely varying cycle counts and regular external refurbishment cycles.

Results Achieved:

Mould maintenance triggered at correct shot thresholds
Tools held at vendors identified 20-40% sooner
Cost per part established at individual tool level
Machining & Tool Room Operations
Plants controlling fixtures, gauges and cutting tool assemblies issued daily across multiple shifts and cells.

Results Achieved:

Issue and return cycle time at the counter reduced
Gauge calibration due dates enforced at issue
Tool replacement spend forecast from measured usage

Key Performance Indicators

Measures agreed with the tool room head, maintenance head and plant manager at design sign-off, then reported from day one.

Tool Location Accuracy
Match between recorded location and physical location during a tool room verification exercise.
Target: >99%
How we get there: Held up by portal reads on every movement path and periodic handheld verification.
Tag Retention Rate
Share of fitted tags still attached and readable after a defined period in live production.
Target: >98% at 12 months
How we get there: Achieved through survivability trials and per-tool mounting design before mass tagging begins.
Shot Count Capture Accuracy
Agreement between counts recorded by the system and the machine's own cycle counter.
Target: >99%
How we get there: Ensured by taking the count from the controller and binding it to the mounted tool.
Tool-Related Line Stoppages
Stoppages caused by a tool being unavailable, unfit or past its maintenance point.
Target: Reduced 30-50%
How we get there: Driven by usage-based preventive maintenance and pre-changeover tool readiness checks in the tool room.

How We Deliver

Every deployment starts with a site survey, because tagging decisions taken on paper fail in a press shop.

01

Requirement Study & Tool Room Survey

We inventory the tool population, examine mounting surfaces and operating temperatures, and document your issue, return, maintenance and vendor processes as actually run.

02

Solution Design & Tag Survivability Trial

Tag types are mounted on representative tools and run in live conditions, then reader placement, workflows and thresholds are signed off before bulk procurement.

03

Pilot on One Press Line

One line or tool family is tagged and tracked end to end against acceptance criteria, including shot capture from the machine and a full changeover cycle.

04

Rollout, Tagging & Support

The remaining tool population is tagged in planned batches, the tool room team is trained, and the system moves into an agreed AMC covering tags and readers.

Why Choose Our Tool, Die & Mould Tracking System?

Why tool room and maintenance heads choose an engineered tracking system rather than an off-the-shelf RFID kit.

Tag Survivability Proven First
We trial tags on your own dies and moulds under real heat, oil and impact before you commit, because a failed tag scheme is an expensive lesson.
Usage, Not Calendar, Drives PM
Maintenance triggers on measured shots taken from the machine, so a tool running three shifts daily is not serviced on the schedule of one sitting idle.
Custody Includes Your Vendors
Gate passes, vendor turnaround ageing and return inspection are part of the core workflow, not an afterthought handled on a paper register.
Hardware, Software And Site Work
Site survey, tag mounting, reader installation, machine integration, software and ongoing support are all delivered by a single accountable engineering team.

Stop Losing Presses To Missing Tools

Book a site survey with our engineering team. We will assess your tool population, mounting conditions and vendor movement, run a tag survivability trial, and come back with a scoped pilot line, hardware list and indicative timeline.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

It gives every die, mould, fixture and gauge in a plant a permanent machine-readable identity, then records what happens to it. Location and custody are captured as the tool moves between the tool store, the machine, the maintenance bay and outside vendors. Usage is captured as actual shots or cycles from the machine it runs on, maintenance is triggered from that measured usage, and cost per part comes from the tool's own life and refurbishment history.

It is custom-built. We are a solution development and systems integration company, not a hardware reseller. The tagging scheme, reader layout, workflows and maintenance thresholds are engineered after a tool room survey.

The right tags will, and choosing them is the core of the site survey. We use metal-mount high-temperature UHF tags fitted in a machined pocket, bolted bracket or protected recess, then trial them in live production.

From the machine, not from a logbook. The press or moulding machine cycle signal is read through its PLC or a retrofitted proximity sensor, and the mounted tool is bound to it by an RFID read.

Yes. Tools leaving the plant for sharpening, repair or refurbishment move out on a system-raised gate pass, custody transfers to that vendor, and ageing runs against the promised turnaround so overdue tools are flagged early.

Yes. Tags, fixed readers, portals, antennas, handheld terminals and marking equipment are scoped, supplied, installed and commissioned as part of the project, including physical tag mounting on the tool population and machine-side integration.

Yes. We integrate with SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and Navision, Tally and existing CMMS modules, so tool masters, work orders, spare consumption and cost data stay consistent rather than maintained twice.

Either. On-premise, private cloud and hybrid deployments are all supported, and the reader and machine integration layer buffers locally, so tool movement and shot counts keep recording if the plant network drops.

A pilot on one press line or tool family is typically commissioned within eight to twelve weeks of requirement sign-off, including the tag survivability trial. Full tagging then runs in planned batches.

Support runs under an agreed AMC covering defined response times by severity, preventive maintenance of readers and antennas, replacement tagging for damaged or new tools, and machine interface support as the tool population changes.