Stampers Moving to Greater Processing Flexibility

“Big Bed” Transfer Presses Utilize Multi-Mode Processing Via Unique COE Coil Feeding System

Feeding 2000+ ton presses can be quite a dilemma. But managing the cost and inventory of the material going into the press can key to the overall challenge.

One automotive supplier’s plant runs two transfer presses (2200 and 2800 tons) outfitted with extremely flexible coil feed lines from COE Press Equipment. Impressive capabilities from this line include:

• Versatility to feed direct from coil…or process blanks using destackers to handle blanks produced off line…or with inline blanking using an oscillating shear and magnetic conveyor systems.
• Additional productivity is gained in their ability to do coil changes in a couple minutes…and complete job changeovers in a fraction of the time it took blank fed lines to be set up.
• 78” coil width processing capabilities…material thickness processing up to .187” at 78” wide (.250” at 42” wide)….processing of newer high-strength steels is possible

A few interesting questions are answered by their Plant Manager.

Q: On the 2800 ton line, the press primarily produces just the large SUV floor pans?
A: “Originally yes, but due to the market’s expanding need for big bed press bed services, it now only represents a small portion of the work done on that press.”

Q: So your die changes are pretty frequent? And what do you realize in die change time?
A: “We change over the press up to six times daily…and an average part-to-part die change of less than 20 minutes is our target. The rolling bolster configuration helps with this process. Additionally, we can achieve coil changes in 3 minutes. Because we have separation of the program controls from the back end of the line to the front, we can begin loading the next job and start threading the coil through the straightener and feeder while we’re tailing out the previous job. It saves us quite a bit of time!”

Q: How do you feel about the overall “controllability” of the press line?
A: “The entire line is automatically adjustable through the line controller. It’s as simple as dialing in a part number. The only manual adjustment needed is adjusting the coil edge guides to set the coil width. And it took basic training by our press operators and the equipment suppliers…it all went very well.

Q: How does the shear and conveyor/part handling equipment work?
A: “The oscillating shear station allows us to produce square cut or trapezoid shaped blanks at a rate of up to 24 strokes/minute. The blanks then move to a magnetic, servo-controlled conveyor system. They can be rotated either 90 or 180 degrees, depending on the part orientation to the press. Precision sensors determine the exact blank position on the conveyor to ensure the appropriate location of the first station in the transfer press. The sensors give us forgiveness for conveyor belt slippage or any movement of the blanks on the belts.”

Q: You originally specified the line with a straight cut shear…why was this changed and how did it all work out?
A: “After a year’s production, we brought in some work requiring custom blank stamping. To avoid offline blanking operations, we decided to go with an Oscillating Shear, which required a major overhaul of the line. We worked ahead on our inventory levels and timed the whole changeover during our July shutdown…and COE reengineered a better solution and delivered the whole thing to make us only be down for a two week period. The Oscillating Shear has helped to keep the material utilization costs down and help us lower the overall cost of manufacturing.”

Q: Tell us about how you rebuilt an existing feed line to work with your 2200 ton transfer line?
A: “As an older feed line became obsolete at a sister facility, we decided to bring this equipment in to pair up with a destacker (to process blanks for short run or tryout work). The feed line needed a few changes along the way, specifically a change in passline height and reworking the controls to a newer ControlLogix platform;. Overall, we can run .187” thick at 72” wide coil fed operations, and we can destack developed-shaped blanks up to 40” x 80” in size. We can run production work on the press and, when needed, have the flexibility to change over to perform new die tryout for our customers…and that’s important when you’re in start-up mode.”

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