The tonnage signature is the die telling you what is happening inside it. A worn punch, a mis-set shut height or a failing nitrogen cylinder all change the shape of that curve before they change the part enough for anyone to reject it. Catching the drift on the signature is the difference between sharpening tooling on a planned Saturday and snapping a punch mid-shift, which takes the die out of the press and the press out of the schedule.
The steps ChatterFix schedules for this PM. Every step is a checkable item on the work order — a technician can speak their way through it without touching a keyboard.
The tonnage signature is the die telling you what is happening inside it. A worn punch, a mis-set shut height or a failing nitrogen cylinder all change the shape of that curve before they change the part enough for anyone to reject it. Catching the drift on the signature is the difference between sharpening tooling on a planned Saturday and snapping a punch mid-shift, which takes the die out of the press and the press out of the schedule.
Quality drifts first and gets absorbed: burrs get bigger, a dimension moves within tolerance and then to the edge of it, and the operator compensates. Then the die fails hard. On a takt-timed line that is not a maintenance event, it is a production stoppage measured against a line rate you cannot recover — and dies damaged this way commonly need a tool room, not a fitter.
The cycle count is the real trigger; the quarterly leg is the fallback for dies that sit idle between campaigns. A hundred thousand hits suits a mid-size progressive die in mild steel — high-strength material and tight-tolerance work want it far sooner. Let your own tooling records set the number.
This procedure — and every other PM for your industry — is already built into ChatterFix. Pick your industry and it lands on the right equipment, on the right interval, in about three minutes.