This session addresses challenges related to end-of-press-line automation, namely the task of handling stamped parts and scrap, and the bottlenecks that can result. Led by automa¬tion and controls expert Dean Phil¬lips (PMA’s newly named director of technical training) and Jim Meyers, senior stamping engineer with TCR Integrated Stamping Systems, this session also features Eric McClung, president of metal forming company R&S Manufac-turing and Sales Co., Santa Paula, CA.

Phillips and Meyers will discuss related automation technologies and how they can mesh in a productive press line, and McClung will add his thoughts as to adding automation: why it’s needed and what it needs to do.

This session, on July 24, tackles the physics behind sheet metal cutting and forming, as metal formers must replace the traditional “mild steel way of thinking” with a more complete understanding of how newer higher-strength materials (steels and aluminum grades) impact the results seen in the pressroom.

So explains panelist, MetalForming columnist and lead presenter Art Hedrick, himself a self-proclaimed “dieologist,” and who stresses the need for more tool and die professionals to also become dieologists. That is, scientifically based knowledge experts in how material properties and other metal forming process variables work together to form a “forming system.”

Fellow MetalForming LIVE panelist Danny Schaeffler agrees, adding: “If you don’t understand a key input into the ‘black box’—sheet metal properties—how do you expect to efficiently deal with all of the forming-related challenges? And the challenges get bigger when the material gets stronger.”

How does this play out in the pressroom? To tackle that topic we welcome panelist Vince Millioto, a metal forming specialist with automotive Tier One Martinrea. Top of mind for Millioto: die spotting and tonnage monitoring.

“Stamping these higher strength materials requires bringing the art of die spotting back to prominence,” he says. “We must revisit the proper techniques for spotting dies and ensure that the people in the toolroom and the pressroom understand when, why and how to spot dies.”

Press brake bending is a fabrication operation that relies heavily on the operator’s skill and know-how to result accurately and profitably. Tool knowledge, technique expertise, and operational experience can render a perfect part made efficiently that makes money or a mangled part headed for the scrap bin.

Three press brake experts will share their bending knowledge in the MetalForming LIVE: Press Brake Tooling and Techniques Optimization virtual event.

Paul LeTang, “Mr. Bend,” will focus on manufacturability. He’ll show deformed metal parts, the end result of errors made, then step back to where the bending operator or designer took a wrong turn, and then step back even further to the correct actions that would have resulted in a good part. He will touch on too-sharp bends, too-tight clearances, sequence, and tooling selection. Veteran LeTang draws from his deep experience as a technical advisor for Bystronic, and currently, as an independent consultant.

Justin Talianek, a rising star as lead press brake operator for Keystone Fabricating, Bethlehem, PA, is slated to share some creative approaches he has learned during his 10-yr. experience to solving press brake problems: how to manage a bend with a hole close to the fold; optimal V-bends; and how to form large-radius bends without custom tooling. You can read Talianek’s excellent articles outlining creative bending approaches in the May and August issues of MetalForming magazine.

Hector Velazquez of Wilson Tool International will take a deep dive into press brake tooling best selection, tooling optimization such as coatings, best applications, and lend his extensive product knowledge to advising when it makes financial sense to purchase specialized tooling and how to keep your tooling in prime condition for optimal results.