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The company I work for builds grinding machines that sharpen things
like drill bits and end mills. Machine operators remove the grinding
wheel gang by holding the wheel with one hand while using the other
hand to simultaneously press two buttons. The buttons would correspond
to 4 and 6 on a telephone pad. These two buttons have the same
label, "REL HSK" (Release HSK). So far, so good. Operators can also
release a different component by pressing a single button, "REL COOL"
in position 1.
The control engineers currently label the button in position 3 as "NOT
USED". Here's their logic. They want to make removing the wheel gang
intentional. If someone releases the wheel gang without holding onto
it, they could ruin one or more grinding wheels costing several
hundred dollars each. They don't want to do that. dropping the coolant
manifold won't hurt anything, probably. So, they want to condition the
operators to push two buttons ONLY when they are removing the grinding
wheel and to push a single button to remove the manifold. To reinforce
proper technique, the "NOT USED" button disables the "REL COOL" button.
I can agree with the logic, but I disagree with having a button that
actually disables another button and calling it "NOT USED". Completely
removing the button isn't an option. Leaving the label blank could be.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a concise label that would work
in this situation? Two short words (six letters each) is about the
maximum that we can fit on a button and still make it readable.
As I was working on this the thought came to me, maybe I can convince
them to move the "LOCK COOL" button to the space currently occupied
by "NOT USED". Or, as I almost wrote, instead of "NOT USED", call
it "NOT COOL". Any other suggestions? It will be an uphill battle so
all suggestions are welcome.
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