Page 22 - MetalForming Magazine March 2022

Transfer tooling sits at the ready at BAE Industries in Warren, with quick connection to universal rails allowing for rapid job changeovers. Use of universal rail tooling provides flexibility for BAE, as it can be refitted and reused for whatever transfer job comes next.
system allow for higher speeds, and the system offers a far more mass-effi- cient structure. Everything about it is a win. The drives are smaller, but the transfers run faster, with less bounce.”
Consider, for example, a transfer system for a 240-in.-bed press.
“The longest transfer component in a 240-in.-bed transfer press at our facil- ity is the universal transfer rail, and in supporting that, no member is longer than 4 ft.,” Siess explains. “In that same press, a through-the-window transfer system has 30-ft.-long beams, with all of the moment-of-inertia and bend- ing-moment issues, as well as the large drive sizes necessary to handle the increased mass, and all of the bounce that transfers to the finger tooling.”
Optimizing Motion is King
A common belief: The shortest dis- tance between two points is a straight line. But, transfer systems can’t operate in a straight line.
“In transfer applications, the short- est distance between two points is the top half of a horizontal ellipse,” Siess offers. “The only two fixed points in a transfer application are the beginning of the transfer distance and the end. Everything else, we have freedom to program in accordance with minimiz- ing acceleration and deceleration The transfer programming targets the top half of a horizontal ellipse, and that’s what we shoot for. We need to optimize the travel path and maximize corner rounding.”
Optimizing that path, Siess explains, involves a number of steps:
• Bring the finger tooling in at the earliest possible point. “That means trading paint with the upper die shoe,” Siess says, “knowing where the first crash will come and traveling just short of that—almost clipping it on the way in.”
• Understand the difference in time and location from telling something to move, and it actually moving. “In every transfer system that I’ve seen, the tor- sional wind-up in bars, the actuation of solenoids and everything else, has 8 to 10 deg. of lead time. That must be figured into the transfer programming.”
to be a full-service supplier—running presses to 2500 tons and bed sizes to 240 in., which would allow us to func- tion as a Tier-One contract stamper. As a result, we added the Flex 1500 transfer system on one of our 1200- ton presses here in Warren, and brought back a mothballed 2500-ton 240-in-bed press in Fraser. That press already had an Atlas transfer. We removed it and sent it to Atlas to refur- bish during press install, and it came back six months later with state-of- the-art controls.”
This retrofitted system now can be considered a Flex 3000, according to David Kuch, Atlas Technologies account representative.
“In 2017 we upgraded the existing Flex 5000, which included both mechanical and controls refits,” Kuch explains. “When we upgraded the con- trol system to our current Rockwell
A/B platform on the Flex 5000 chassis, we discontinued the original Flex 5000 model designation in favor of the Flex 3000.”
With transfer systems inhouse and serving production needs, Siess, with his team, doggedly sets about to ensure their effectiveness. Effective transfer system operation at BAE rests with three core beliefs espoused by Siess:
• Front-and-back is ideal
• Optimizing motion is king • Opt for universal tooling.
Front-and-Back is Ideal
“Front-and-back transfers have tremendous flexibility and structural advantages over other types of trans- fers,” says Siess, “starting with the abil- ity to switch from progressive-die to transfer-die mode and back in 3 min. or less. And, moments of inertia and bending moments in a front-and-back
20 MetalForming/March 2022
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