Those in the industry know that reading a mill test report (MTA) requires a certain amount of patience, a trained eye, and sometimes a sense of humor. These reports belong to the same family as scribbled doctor’s prescriptions and subway maps written in a foreign language. What makes mill test reports even more challenging is that they lack standardization (multiple columns and figures within those columns never look the same) and they suffer the effects of transfer; they pass through a number of hands gaining fingerprint smudges, hand-written signatures, and notes with questionable penmanship—chicken scratches!—marked up with international ligatures.

The MTR layout varies from manufacturer to manufacturer so that no two reports are alike and, as they move along the path from beginning to end, their quality degrades because they’ve been scanned and printed over and over. In short, they ain’t pretty and your team struggles to locate the right data for each product on the report each and every time. 

Since information like heat code, mechanical properties, elasticity, and reaction to bending could be found almost anywhere on that grubby sheet, processing each mill test report and entering data for each item is a time-consuming exercise on the surface and an exercise in frustration underneath.

It’s 2021 and that shouldn’t be how mill test reports go anymore. The good news is that it isn’t. The unfortunate news is that too many manufacturers still use old methods. The solution that makes these reports easier to handle is digitization in league with automation. A double-whammy “oh my gosh this is so much better” fix. 

What’s on a Mill Test Report?

A mill test report is a line-item disaster that jam packs rows and columns of information about different materials’ physical and chemical properties on a sheet. It’s a crucial document that describes how metals comply with international standards. The report goes by different names as well (in keeping with the confusing nature of this entity):

• Certified Mill Test Report

• Certified Material Test Report

• Mill Certification

• Mill Inspection Certificate

A mill test, then, is something like a report card for metal materials. Instead of grades, it reports on the strength and make-up of your received metals, including:

• Product description: The metal product’s alloy, temper, thickness, width, and finish.

• Heat number or heat lots: The identifying heat code that describes the metal’s origin. It verifies metal quality and is the best way to trace back your material to the original mill heat. This is sometimes referred to as a lot number.

• Mechanical properties and physical properties: Strength, ductility, hardness, and elasticity of steel products demonstrate that the materials meet your physical needs as outlined by the engineer.

• Chemical properties: The chemical makeup of the metal alloy must fall within the required ranges.

• Additional details: Metals have varying purposes and you may need to know more details related to bend tests or the type of finish it has. Any extra information will be included here.

A Study in Modern Art? An Inkblot Test? 

A certified mill test report verifies that all received raw materials match the engineering requirements and the purchase order. There are so many metals and alloys evaluated using mill test reports—for so many different uses—and so much data to analyze and sift through; they’re daunting to understand. On top of the different clothes these reports wear, there’s no room for error or omission in the logging of each report. None of this information can be skipped over because it provides quality assurance and compliance with industry standards like the American National Standards Institute and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ANSI and ASME). The reporting process is time-consuming but necessary because materials must be verified as safe to use. 

Whether you’re manufacturing stainless steel for appliances, a subsea pipeline, or steel beams for a highway overpass, the quality of metal matters. Metal quality is the hinging factor that determines if a project succeeds or fails—in some cases it means the difference between life and death. Using the correct material as defined by the component’s engineering is key. So this key piece of information shouldn’t be difficult to see at a glance.

Automating an MTR makes it easy to synthesize the information from the report—no matter how the fields are drawn. Automation is an adept interpreter of non-standard fields. And this is tremendously valuable because, if we speak plainly, these reports are messy things that are a chore to read—if not impossible to read depending on the abuse the report has undergone before landing in your hands. You’re basically tasked to interpret a Rorschach inkblot test to determine whether or not your metal product is safe to use for your project. But a mill test report should not test your psychological mettle, nor strain your eyes, nor force you to pluck needles from Jackson Pollock-type haystacks. 

Further compounding the importance of what’s trapped on an MTR is the necessity of sticking the report to the metals so that it follows that metal wherever it goes; it’s what certifies a material for use in various applications. Once a raw product is shipped to manufacturers, the manufacturer becomes responsible for tracking information that’s on the mill test report. That’s jolly well difficult if the report is paper-based. It’s less difficult if the report transforms into a digital thing. So let’s talk about transforming MTRs into digital things and create some excitement about what you can do with digital mill test reports. Like, dance on the loading dock sort of excitement!

Data Extraction Software: Automating and Digitizing Mill Inspection Certificates

Given that the results presented in an MTR are like a passport for each metal product and, without it, your metal can’t go anywhere or be used for anything, it makes sense to treat MTRs with a high-level of respect. Today, that respect takes the form of clean, organized, digitized reports not scattered form fields and splotchy scribbles on wrinkled, faded paper. 

Think of this digital transformation as getting to skip the long line at Customs to check your passport. Extraction software reads, sorts, and retains MTR data, formatting the information you need in a standardized report and putting it in front of your eyeballs in a way that doesn’t hurt your soul. 

Here’s how automation and machine learning ingests markups and scrapes data in modern mill test reports:

1. First step: Mill test reports are scanned and digitized—goodbye paper! 

2. Next, data extraction software recognizes and captures characters and converts images into readable text—hello tidy, legible information! 

3. Machine learning (ML) turns this information into structured data. 

4. Models are created using data from each report like the heat code, chemical properties, and more. 

5. Scraping software automates the data extraction process, grabbing all information and sorting it into data sets that are sent to a cloud-based server, converted into open-source web data or other document types, and even routed into an automated workflow. The data is there in an easy-to-read format, ready for download.

It’s revolutionary and cost-effective and it’s going to make reading MTRs a walk in the park, save your staff scads of time, catapult productivity, and lift the entire process out of the dark ages.

Data extraction tools turn those inkblot tests into usable reports that transform your business processes into streamlined things, getting rid of the old-school method of filing physical records. Without data extraction software, you’re left sifting through nonsensical mill test reports, entering data sets, and trying to turn this data into the records you need. Automation tools make this happen automagically so your team can focus on more important tasks. 

Revolution Data System’s Intelligent Process Automation software pulls data, sends it to the right party, and makes repeatable grunt work vanish like a magical gift straight out of 2021—sparkles!

So, now you know what you’ve been wading through for far too long, and what’s out there to make your job easier. But to reiterate, with Intelligent Capture data extraction software you can:

• Find data quickly and easily

• Build workflows

• Embed accurate process automation

• Host data in your own data center or in our Software-as-a-Service platform

• Get support from our experts whenever you need it.

We get excited talking with frustrated manufacturers about how Mill Test Reports can be a lot less frustrating. If you want to learn more, hop on the phone or shoot us a message using our online form!