What are those little clocks?

March 24, 2007 10:29 PM

I make stuff out of old computers. I may know that most towers/cabinets today are made out of Cycolac, but what are those little clock looking things that are molded into the plastic walls?
posted by wallstreet1929 to computers & internet (7 comments total)

They are probably there to record a production run number or such for quality control. You do mean the little dial like things with numbers and an arrow or wedge pointing to a particular number?
posted by zengargoyle at 10:42 PM on March 24, 2007

I think they refer the date (day/moth/year) of manufacture.
posted by vac2003 at 11:20 PM on March 24, 2007

er, umm, that should be, month of manufacture - although "moth of manufacture" sounds like a catchy name for, er, ummm, something.
posted by vac2003 at 11:21 PM on March 24, 2007

Im going to have to go with manufacture date. I've seen multiple types of these - sometimes there are multiple dials in pairs (12 months, 10 years), sometimes theres a single 12-number dial with a 2-digit year flanking the arrow in the middle (much like the camera I just took apart to confirm this). Either way my money's on date of manufacture.
posted by datacenter refugee at 11:33 PM on March 24, 2007

They're also on plastic containers, various abs-plastic and other parts. The only thing I can say with any certainty is that they have nothing to do with dates. It's some sort of standardized plastic product marking.
posted by IronLizard at 12:56 AM on March 25, 2007

I can say with some certainty that they *are* dates, although sometimes, just like regular date codes on your box of Rice Krispies, the date may be obfuscated. I used to design and have made various railroad freight car parts. The reason for these is quality control - if one or more parts with a date code of October 3, 1999 fails due to apparent material failure, you find a few more parts from that date and do some testing.

On many automotive parts, numbers are molded clearly around the "clocks", making them easier to read.
posted by notsnot at 3:59 AM on March 26, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Here's a die that makes a date mark.

Here's another one.

They're two pieces, so the arrow can point to different values.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:30 AM on March 26, 2007