Above: Tracker tags are available in a variety of colors.
December, 2025- Whether a worker needs to locate a gauge to calibrate it and make sure it still meets the tolerance requirements or use the gauge to check manufactured parts, Danville Metal Stamping Co. Inc. realized workers were spending too much time conducting searches, says General Manager Mason Clarey.
At its two facilities in Danville, Illinois, the manufacturer performs forming, turning, milling, laser machining, welding, electrochemical grinding, electrical discharge machining, heat treatment, material testing, manual sheet metal work and more. “Pretty much anything to do with sheet metal, we’re capable of doing,” Clarey says.
Danville Metal Stamping uses its Wiser real-time location tracker to find gauges using tracker tags.
Danville Metal investigated a radio frequency identification-style tracking system (RFID), which might indicate that a gauge would be in the machine shop but could not provide a precise location, Clarey notes. The manufacturer has about 6,000 gauges of all types across its two Danville locations.
Jeremy Turner, gauge inspector, says he would sometimes spend an hour or two searching for small gauges because fellow employees would “just leave them on their desk or in a toolbox or in a cabinet, not where it was supposed to be.”
In search of a solution, Clarey says he stumbled upon an online advertisement for a realtime industrial asset tracking and location system from Wiser Systems Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina. After looking into the technology for the real-time location system (RTLS), he adds that it would be significantly more accurate than an RFID tracking system. “that type of accuracy caught our eye.”
Wiser Systems reports that the RTLS delivers sub-meter location data across complex indoor environments and enables asset tracking through a wireless mesh network built from ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna nodes and tracker tags. This UWB tracking system automatically and continuously calculates inch-level tag coordinates, displaying precise asset locations on a site map or facility floor plan. Purpose-built for industrial environments, the system operates through walls and around obstacles, using minimal power.
IN THE FIELD
To get a better idea of how the RTLS functions and see it in action, Clarey says Danville Metal visited a company that performs black oxide treatment and uses it to track work in process and make it visible through real-time search and zone alerts to improve flow and reduce loss.
For example, in many operations carts are staged in unintended locations, batches move too early or too late between steps, or high-priority jobs are misplaced or delayed, according to Wiser. Just finding lost stuff can waste a huge amount of time, and if not found in a reasonable period, can require reordering of parts or re-manufacturing of work in process.
Clarey acknowledges that tracking work in process is a common application for the RTLS at many facilities, but Danville Metal has not expanded its use of the system beyond gauge tracking a er implementing it about a year and a half ago. “We have thought about it.”
To help with system installation, Clarey says Danville Metal contracted a company to perform the wiring of the hardware and then Logan Maxwell, sales and business development for Wiser, came out and helped the manufacturer with installation, setting up maps and making sure all the antennas were in communication with each other and the network functioned properly. The Danville Metal IT team was pivotal in the installation process, and installed a dedicated Wiser network.
Once the system was installed, Clarey says he collaborated with Turner— who led the Wiser Systems implementation project—on and off for a couple of weeks. Together, they developed a standard operating procedure on “how to attack the gauges and what their naming convention was going to be” and how to best navigate the software, says Turner. It is crucial to establish a naming convention that makes the most sense for an operation, he says. “Don’t change it midway.”
In addition, it is beneficial to maintain a separate log of what assets a company has and the specific tracker tag that is tied to that asset in case the system must be reset, or if the user must rename all the tags if a database became corrupted, according to Turner. Nearly 800 gauges, including some other assets that are similar to gauges, have tracker tags at Danville Metal.
“We have 1,000 tags on hand,” Turner says. “When a gauge has an assigned tracker tag, I can go right to where it is and get a general location within a couple of feet, including how high off the ground it is.”
Wiser Systems’ ultra-wide band asset tracking system automatically and continuously calculates inch-level tag coordinates, displaying precise asset locations on a site map or facility floor plan.
CHIMING IN
Danville Metal experienced a few instances where its antenna nodes lost their connection and the company had to replace an ethernet cable, Turner notes, but the main maintenance task is changing the standard CR2032 round battery in each tracker tag. The manufacturer extended battery life by lowering the ping rate, and Wiser reports that advancements to tag firmware have added additional years to the average tag life.
“If you have a higher ping rate where you’re looking for the tag, let’s say, every 10 seconds, it wears the battery down quicker,” he says. “But if I only want to know where that gauge is at every, let’s say, 30 seconds, the ping rate would be slower because it’s not actively looking for that tag all the time. I don’t need to know where it is every 10 seconds. And it saves us money on batteries.”
When available, Danville Metal updates the system’s software, Turner says, and has performed a major update to the back end of the software where the main settings are done and multiple updates to the front end software where the user interfaces with the Wiser software.
Because Danville Metal needs to track and locate gauges at both its main facility with three buildings and its Eastgate facility across town with one building, the RTLS enabled the manufacturer to create a continuous network between the two and monitor them simultaneously, Turner explains. “We have three arenas here and one arena at Eastgate, but we can switch between them to locate gauges if they were in one building versus another building.”
The RTLS also enabled Danville Metal to reduce the headcount of the gauge inspection department from five to four people, Turner says, helping to quicken the return on investment. “Under two years on the ROI.” With a well-established system for tracking gauges, Clarey says Danville Metal is discussing using the RTLS to track tooling. “We’ve got a tool storage building for our press tools, machining fixtures and weld fixtures that we tend to sometimes misplace and have to spend time searching for them.” Dr. Seth Hollar, CEO of Wiser System, comments, “It’s been a pleasure working with the Danville Metal team, and we look forward to continuing our support and helping them expand their Wiser system as their needs grow.”
Danville Metal Stamping Co. Inc., 217/446-0647, danvillemetal.com
Wiser Systems Inc., 919/551-5566, wisersystems.com
