Page 23 - MetalForming Magazine March 2022

Brian Siess (left), BAE Industries vice president of operations, and Dave Strozeski, machining and prototype manager, examine an inhouse-designed and -built mechanism to support material as it exits electronic roll feeds during progressive-die operations. Its use has reduced buckling by 85 to 90 percent, and miss-hits by a like amount, according to Siess.
• Exit at the latest possible point. “A three-axis transfer has six motions: for- ward and reverse on three axes—clamp in and out; lift up and down; transfer forward and reverse. Three of these transfer motions occur without a part; run those motions as quickly as the drive will allow. The key is what occurs while the parts are in contact with the finger tooling. Maximize the amount of time that the transfer's in contact with the part and minimize the time when it's traveling back to its home position without a part. When we have a part in the fingers, we have to use TLC. In sum: Three motions should get all of the attention in programming, then take the space that is left and run like heck to get back to home position for next stroke.”
These programming tips paid off big time in optimizing an older transfer sys- tem—installed in 2004—on a 240-in.- bed press at the BAE plant in Warren.
“When I got here in 2014, it maxed out at 11 strokes/min. producing base pans for bulk-storage containers,” Siess recalls. “Simply by inputting different program values—not changing a single piece of hardware, using the same drives and only optimizing programs— we went from running at 98-percent drive load at 11 strokes/min. to running at 70-percent drive load at 21 strokes/min., with a 48-in. pitch.”
Editor’s note: The transfer motion and speed on this job truly is a sight to see, and you can do just that via a video in the online version of this article.
Opt for Universal Tooling
“I am adamantly opposed to dedi- cated finger tooling,” Siess says, citing costs that can run to three times that of universal tooling, as well as flexibility. “All of our universal rail tooling has been through three, four or five reap- plications, retrofitted for each new job as needed. When we finish using it on
one job, we place it into a cabinet, then take it out and adapt it for another set of tool- ing. The universal tool- ing rails provided by Atlas Engineering real- ly allows us to be flexi- ble, and it provides a real advantage. Dedi- cated tooling just becomes obsolete when a job ends. I would push universal rails for anyone in con- tract stamping.”
BAE Industries
maintains finger tool-
ing at the ready for quick connection to rails as needed, making job changeover a rapid and efficient process.
“As a contract stamper,” says Siess, “we sell our ability to run a customer’s offload tooling in our presses. Universal rail tooling makes it much easier to do that.”
Inhouse Expertise Makes It All Work
From identifying productivity- enhancing opportunities to optimizing transfer programs to building and maintain tooling, BAE Industries has the inhouse expertise and experience to make it all work.
“We have a great amount of knowhow, an excellent machining and prototype area, some of the best tool and machine repair people in the world, and some brilliant mechanical engineers,” Siess offers.
Gaining from this expertise and experience: Atlas Technologies, with the communication loop resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship.
“Feedback from Brian Siess and BAE has helped us evolve and fine-tune what we offer,” says David Hense, Atlas
Technologies president, “while our sys- tems and components serve BAE Industries well.”
Inhouse capabilities at BAE allow for solutions to myriad challenges on the plant floor. For example, issues with feedstock buckling in progressive- die applications led to an inhouse- designed and -built mechanism to sup- port the stock as it exits an electronic roll feed. It reduced buckling by as much as 90 percent and reduced miss- hits by a like amount, according to Siess.
And, beyond transfer optimization, BAE proactively addresses other areas as well.
“We have our Press Optimization Team process,” Siess explains. “It involves understanding the 360 deg. of standard mechanical press motion, and making sure that we’ve optimized every single degree in that 360 deg. We explore how to achieve maximum speed and material feed by minimizing acceleration and deceleration, and how to use every bit of the press window available for accurate feed, pilot release and everything else. This has allowed us to increase speed on our presses by 60 to 70 percent.” MF
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