Coe Press Equipment
Press Feed Systems
Help Mexican Manufacturer
Win Stamping Jobs

Press stamping equipment plays a vital part in producing quality parts says Jorge Hernandez, Production Manager of IntermexDMC. He believes that buying the best production stamping equipment and using it efficiently, keeps them competitive in their market.

IntermexDMC (Chihauhua, Mexico) is a QS-9000-certified source of quality stampings with 18 people working in a 50,000 sq. ft. production area. They have presses ranging from 60 to 400 tons with a maximum bed length of 96" and material width of 33". The company originally bought and sold land and industrial buildings. It now owns 11 industrial parks in the state of Chihuahua. They are also specialists in helping other companies to develop businesses (called Shelter Services) in Mexico.

In 1999, a company asked IntermexDMC to offer contract manufacturing, which they did. They then expanded to offer services to other companies such as Honeywell and Philips. With this contract work, they decided to expand more into manufacturing. After commissioning a market study, the company considered wire harnesses, PCB assembly, metal-stamping, and plastic injection molding. Metal stamping was the best choice they found and bought the equipment necessary to be competitive, which included Aida presses and Coe Press Equipment feed systems.

Hernandez said, “We’ve looked for a partner for our company since we started manufacturing. Several didn’t work out. Now we are 50% owned by Die-Matic Corporation (Cleveland, OH), producer of stamping dies, progressive dies, specialized tooling, and precision stampings. They’ll transfer work to us for different customers such as Visteon, TRW, and Auma.”

Hernandez added, “We make parts for lighting fixtures and oil filters that meet all the requirements of an automotive company. We already have jobs and tooling in the plant for TRW, Auma, and Visteon.” With these jobs, Hernandez said that labor rates aren’t the only major issue…good equipment and the ability to do the job is also paramount. What makes them additionally more competitive is their ability to do assembly work and secondary operations at low costs.

Along with giving their customers better delivery times, prices, and better overall service, this equipment helps to keep their pricing down. Hernandez said we’ve eliminated downtime, and we can produce stampings faster with more pieces per hour than our competitors.

“It’s pretty simple,” adds Hernandez. “If we don’t have the proper equipment, we can’t get any more work. We can’t be competitive because, again, labor means nothing. This equipment is expensive and you have to charge for it. I paid exactly the same amount of money for this as anybody else pays no matter where they are located. My machine rate is basically the same as anybody else’s in Chicago, Cleveland, or any other place. So if you don’t have equipment with the latest technology, you can’t compete. We bought the best presses we could find. Our press feeding equipment from Coe is the best, and the company communicates well with us when we need service and support.”

One of IntermexDMC’s smaller press cells uses a 60-ton Aida press hooked up to a Coe Servomaster CPRF SM-324 digital roll feed that gives exact coil feed. The line also uses a Coe double-ended coil reel, model CPR-DE-PO-4042, that allows more uptime, because while one coil is being staged for a new job or to continue the existing press job, another one delivers material to the current job being processed. A Coe Model CPPS-300-24 power straightener is used to flatten stock. It can handle coil stock that is 0.125" X 24" wide. This line produces jobs such as three inch square chainsaw parts using a six-hit progressive die. There are a total of four Aida presses (60, 150, 200, and 400 tons) in the facility.

Another press cell uses a Coe Servomaster CPRF SM-336 digital rollfeed that can handle up to a 36" wide strip. The line also uses a Coe double-ended coil reel, model CPR-DE-PO-6036, and a Coe Model CPPS-300-36 power straightener that can handle coil stock 36" wide and 0.063" thick at a payoff rate of 80 FPM. One of this line’s typical jobs is to produce a lighting fixture cover that’s 10" X 12" square at about 40 parts per minute.

IntermexDMC will stamp hot and cold-rolled steel along with pregalvanized steel and aluminum. They can also stamp high-strength steels for the automotive industry.

A progressive stamping job for a round trim ring on a lighting fixture is stamped at 69-strokes per minute with seven hits through the die. Every one of the presses has a double-coil reel for faster material loading and job changeover. Hernandez said they try to run at least one full day for each job. They’ll process about 40 different jobs per month.

Currently, a total of 4 press cells utilize Coe coil handling/press feeding equipment.

Hernandez added, “When we set up the long term objectives of IntermexDMC, we found that Coe Press Equipment Corp. could deliver the experience and the productivity we were looking for. So it’s very important for us to have reliable equipment like this in order to meet our own goals.

“To satisfy our customers’ needs when we set up this plant, we started looking around for used equipment and other brands,” said Hernandez. “Coe’s equipment meets exactly the quality and efficiency we needed, and we went with new equipment. They answered our technical questions right away, and took that extra step. Because of their service, equipment, and a strong presence in Mexico, we decided to choose them as a key supplier. If you compare prices, similarly priced equipment may have ‘ok’ quality, but again, Coe took that extra step to serve our needs.”

When IntermexDMC set up these press lines, Hernandez talked to many companies about their presses and material-handling equipment. “I talked to several press builders and to a lot of vendors for material-handling equipment. They gave me a lot of information to set up the press cells correctly. I received some layouts from Coe, which is another reason we decided to go with them. There are many companies that can offer you similar products, but to be better then their competition, they need to offer you support from the beginning, helping you with the press cell layout for instance. They need people I can talk to in my own language. These are other reasons why we went with Coe and Aida. I think that’s why our customers are coming to buy from us, because we do the same thing.”

Hernandez added that it also helped that the company had the money for new equipment, and they gave him the freedom to decide if he wanted used or new equipment. “It didn’t take much to decide to buy new, because you save all the headaches, the equipment setup, maintenance, and support,” he adds.

Hernandez remarks that having DieMatic as a partner allows them to build almost any tooling. Other area competitors have to go outside and buy from somebody else. “We also have very good product development support for our customers, because DieMatic’s people get involved in the early stages. This is something other companies can’t do around here, because they don’t have the experience.”

Because they already have Mexican customers, Hernandez said that DieMatic needed to be in Mexico. Also, they know that the market is expanding there. “If any metal stamper doesn’t come to Mexico, it’s not that they’ll lose new opportunities, but they might lose whatever Mexican work they currently have,” he remarks.

Hernandez added, “More and more customers are looking for local vendors. Years before they didn’t care much about metal stamping because they couldn’t even find one. Now it’s different. As you look at North American metal stampers…besides the really large OEM’s…most of them are privately owned and still a family operation. Many of these companies are located in Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit, and they don’t want to move from there. More and more, our newest customers are coming to Mexico—big companies like Visteon, Ford, Chrysler—and they’re looking to partner with local vendor. To service these new companies, we must have the latest equipment with the best technology that will give them affordable and high-quality parts—and reliability.”

IntermexDMC has about a third of their new plant earmarked for secondary operations. They also have a small tool room for die maintenance and to make engineering changes.

Hernandez said some of their stamping jobs were transferred to them from another local vendor who was also doing work for one of IntermexDMC’s customers. The vendor couldn’t keep up with production. Part of the vendor’s problem, Hernandez noted, was they didn’t have up-to-date equipment that could provide the quality and productivity required for the job. They are older, manually fed presses. “We had to take the job and I was a little nervous because I knew that the other vendor couldn’t keep up…I thought there must be some kind of trouble here. So we worked hard to prove ourselves, and they’re now our main customer,” he remarked.

Back to Top