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One of the stamping presses John Deere Horicon uses to manufacture support parts (such as frames, mower decks and brackets) is a 1,000-ton link-drive mechanical press. The company needed to fit the press with feeding equipment that could handle material with a width of 42” and a thickness range of 0.43 - 8 mm…all in a limited footprint (under 42’) for overall line length—and to do so without digging a pit.
In order
to meet these restrictions, John Deere Horicon called on Coe Press Equipment
(Sterling Heights, Mich.), which had previously supplied feed lines to
several of John Deere Horicon’s
other presses. In January 2003, Coe supplied and installed a complete
servo roll feed line, which included a 42” servo roll feed with
integrated hydraulic crop shear (CPRF 742); 42” x 24’ dual
threading table; 5” x 42” power straightener (CPPS 500 42);
and 50,000-lb., 42” coil reel (CPR-PO 50042).
John Deere Engineer David Gillins says that John Deere Horicon made the decision to go with Coe based on prior successes with their equipment. “Coe has been able to deliver what we need, when we need it, and support it,” Gillins said. “And they stay within their budget and are on time with deliveries.”
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Press
Line Success
Integral to Deere
Horicon Operations
Of the more than 2,000 dies housed at John Deere Horicon, several critical stamping jobs are routed to the 1,000-ton press. To prepare for the stamping process, a hydraulic coil car loads coil onto the coil reel in a more “user-friendly” and automated fashion. The coil reel then feeds the material into the straightener. John Deere Horicon has installed a laser positioning device (coil centering dot) and specified a peeler/threader hold-down station to allow for completely hands-free loading and to ensure proper positioning of material in the straightener. From there, the material heads to the threading table. The table pneumatically rises during material threading, then lowers to make room for the coil’s need for the proper amount of slack before entering the servo roll feed.
According to Gillins, obtaining quality surface finishes is key to John Deere Horicon’s process. “A lot of the products that we produce for the lawn and garden industry require a Class A or Class B finish,” he said. “We want to provide automotive-quality finishes on things like hoods and fenders, and in order to do that, we have to eliminate any marks on exposed surfaces.” Coe feed and straightener packages on this line include non-marking finishes on their rolls to facilitate this requirement.
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Improved
efficiencies
(CSF vs. conventional
servo feeding)
The new feed line has also greatly improved the press’s efficiency, primarily due to the new servo feed configuration instead of their previous CSF set up. Since replacing that line with a servo roll feed line, Gillins says they have enjoyed greater accuracy and a 24 percent increase in productivity, due largely to a significant reduction in the need for secondary operations. In addition, they have achieved increased line speeds, improvements in set up times (on average, a 30-40% increase) and a reduction in scrap resulting in tens of thousands of dollars annually.
Another conventional servo feed versus CSF issue addressed is material camber. “The new line addresses camber that might challenge a 50,000 pound coil…now we can work with the camber from the loop length and not have to deal with these ‘too rigid’ issues that the entire weight of the coil had to endure from the CSF configuration,” Gillins stated.
Additionally, the “guesswork” of dialing in the appropriate straightening roller heights is much easier and faster because the digital upper roll height indicators allow the operator to set the positioning to the thousandths of an inch (versus cranking the roll height by hand to a mechanical scale). The result: improved initial job set ups and a simpler, faster process for recalling previously programmed jobs/materials.
And recently, John Deere Horicon added a bottom feed option (retrofitted by Coe over a weekend to avoid a production stoppage) to the new Coe line, allowing operators to feed the coil from the bottom instead of the top. This feature allows John Deere Horicon to process clockwise (bottom fed) or counterclockwise (top fed) coil pay offs, giving them the extra versatility to buy steel from various vendors.
Gillins says that choosing Coe to supply new feeding equipment was an easy decision based on the durability of its older Coe equipment. Besides the 1,000-ton press, John Deere Horicon has six other presses fed by Coe equipment, some of it in operation for nearly 20 years.
“We’ve enjoyed the productivity and longevity that Coe has delivered,” Gillins said. “Some years ago we wanted to standardize our feed systems and, at that time, we decided that Coe offered us the best options, such as service, reliability and support after the sale. I’ve been very pleased with them.
“Whenever we’ve had an issue, we’ve gotten service parts from them in a very timely manner. They are just a phone call away if trouble arises. We feel very comfortable and confident in their ability.”
In all, John Deere Horicon has seven coil lines ranging from a 150-ton gap frame up to the 1,000-ton press. These lines work with coil widths ranging from one inch to 42”. The older presses are mostly fed by air feeds, but Gillins says that there are plans to upgrade them to utilize newer servo feed technology.
John Deere Horicon’s stamping facility is approximately 255,000 square feet and its assembly and painting facility is nearly a million square feet. The company runs two production shifts and three maintenance shifts. In 2003, John Deere Horicon processed more than 30,000 tons of steel. On average, the company produces nearly 200,000 units per year.
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