Gas tanks numbers curiosity?

[Brockport Bill 1,402]

Here is a trivia curiosity test question for the WH experts and historians... I had removed a couple gas tanks and was cleaning them and discovered a couple different patterns of numbers?? Any insights out there of what they mean, or represent? Year of manufacture - tractor model year? Some other production info?  See the attached photos ----------- Thanks

[Brockport Bill 1,402]

as an fyi -- there are 2 different photos that look merged together but they are 2 different tanks --  a top and bottom photo

[rmaynard 14,932]

Can we see pictures of the whole tanks?

[953 nut 51,970]

Bill, run out and buy lottery tickets!   Those could be the winning numbers.            

[Handy Don 10,660]

Some are surely mold identifiers. Manufacturers need these to link product with the molds that create them in the event of defects and to time "retirement" of a mold. But that's a lotta numbers!

[ri702bill 7,384]

7 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

in the event of defects and to time "retirement" of a mold.

In a perfect world..... I had to build and rush two Leak Tester devices due to a cold flow issue on a diecast housing we used. One tester went to the Vendor for "in process" inspection - they did random sample testing at the beginning, mid run, and end of the day's production - they paid for the labor - scrap rate was rather high.

The other tester went to the Juarez Assembly facility for 100% part inspection - the vendor paid for that too. The scrap rate was deemed "acceptable" - we still had enough Housings for each shift. The mold was well beyond it's projected service life - all this pre-assembly inspection was a costly Band-Aid fix....

Bill

[Pullstart 59,873]

I think someone was working out their vacation days in the calendar and it got copied and pasted into the mold..

[ebinmaine 63,342]

They remind me of date codes and production run numbers combined. 

 

The year and maybe month listed around what number production run the tank was made in. 

Multiple runs listed could be the previous with the highest number being the current. 

[8ntruck 6,420]

Probably some combination of build date, mold number, and maybe a partial part number.

[Handy Don 10,660]

Meant to add that a lot of plastic tanks use a multi-part mold so there would be mold numbers on each part.

Also interesting to note that the numbers are raised on the tank so they are indents in the mold--the mold maker/maintainer is whacking those updates into the mold surface with "reverse" number stamps!

So the earlier suggestion that they get a new stamp at the start of each month/year of use makes perfect sense to me.

[ri702bill 7,384]

I like the use of the numeral 1 character turned sideways as a hyphen .....

[ri702bill 7,384]

1 hour ago, Handy Don said:

Also interesting to note that the numbers are raised on the tank so they are indents in the mold--the mold maker/maintainer is whacking those updates into the mold surface with "reverse" number stamps!

Material removal in a mold is easier, quicker and cheaper than adding (weldind and machining) material back on. The "Budget Trifecta"....

[Brockport Bill 1,402]

4 hours ago, rmaynard said:

Can we see pictures of the whole tanks?

the insights in posts about the molds is interesting considering the tanks without a guage sender unit have the numeric imprints on the top corner..... and the tank with a guage sender have the numeric imprint on the bottom of tank  - thus the production line would have to have different mold design for the imprint to be made????????

[ri702bill 7,384]

A case of "the chicken or the egg". Tanks without sending units came first, followed by those that did. The numbers had to move...