Creating Your Own Model and Serial Plates with Almost Blank Metal Plates

If you are to look at the model and serial plates that you can find attached to machinery, equipment and even appliances, you will see that most of the parts of these plates are pre-printed. Only a few of the information you see on these plates are added on by hand, and this is done with the use of hand operated stamping machines and equipment. While most of these plates are indeed premade, and most of the time, only the serial numbers of these plates are added on by hand at your facility, there is actually a way for you to create your own plates with the use of metal plates that are almost blank.

Why would you want to create your own model and serial plates when you can order plates that carry almost everything you would want on them already printed? Well, there will be times when new models of products will be made available, and if the plates you already have do not carry the model numbers and information about the items in question, you will need to order new plates. This will mean that existing plates that you have will be wasted since these won’t be usable anymore.

In order to ensure that you do not waste your model and serial plates, it might be a good idea to have a number of these made with numerous blank spaces you can customize on the fly. This will enable you to order such plates by the bulk, which usually means that you can get them for cheaper. This will also enable you to use your plates for any products you might produce, whether these are older models and or newer ones, without having to go through the trouble of having to order new plates again.

For your model and serial plates to be totally useful for whatever items you may need these for, you should try to have a few blank spaces on these plates. These blank spaces can then be imprinted with custom information that pertains to the item the plate will be used on. These plates however should not be totally blank and should carry a few important things on them.

For one, these plates should always have your company’s logo and name on it to make these useful only by your business. This eliminates the possibility of people making off with your plates for their own needs (whatever these needs may be). You will also need to have your company’s contact information on these plates so as to enable your customers to easily get in touch with you when needed.

As for the blank areas of your model and serial plates, here are some of the more important areas that you can have marked blank and labeled only with headers. You can add the information needed for these blank spaces later on with the use of hand-held marking devices such as numbering heads, individual letter and number metal stamps, and detail presses:

Model – this is for the model number or code of your item. You will stamp or mark these spaces with combinations of letters and numbers, words and numbers, or just plain letters or numbers to represent the model of the item. This is often found at the very top of your model and serial plates, directly beneath the company name and logo.

Serial Number – this is often the part of such plates that are often left blank when plates are ordered. This is where you will stamp or imprint the individual, unique codes that each item carries. These codes can consist of letters only, numbers only, alphanumeric combinations and even words and number combinations. These codes are used to help determine individual items for warranty, guarantee and tracking purposes.

Manufacture Date – not all of your products will be made on the same date. Having a blank space for the date of manufacture will allow you to easily track batches, should something go wrong with one of the items in the batch. This will help you determine as well whether or not only one item is defective or the entire batch was made all wrong. Having the manufacture date space on these model and serial plates will enable you to easily recall all items made on that date, if so needed.