Part of the process of manufacturing steel automotive wheels at Ford is done by the Keiserling machine. Coil steel is taken and cut into lengths that are formed and welded to produce a steel band that is then further formed by dies to produce the wheel outer band profile ready to be welded to the inner section. Various problems either in the welded joint or the steel band can often cause the welded band to split when it is formed by the first die as this process 'stretches' the band with very high forces. As the machine process runs automatically what was needed was a method to detect a split wheel band so the machine could then reject it before it got to the next station.
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