Page 40 - MetalForming Magazine March 2022

Most metal formers share com- Setup-Time Reduction per the job recipe created by a more
mon challenges, chief among
them finding the additional employees needed to meet growing production requirements. In addition, retiring baby boomers don’t just exac- erbate the labor shortage, they create brain drain. If stampers today attempt to perform more work in the pressroom than ever before, only using the meth- ods used in the past, they’ll likely find themselves in a very difficult situation.
To the rescue are new technologies that make the existing workforce more productive. Here we focus on press control advances and the use of sensors that promise to multiply the capabili- ties of the staff already on the floor. By increasing their productivity, their increased output will offset the pres- sure to hire additional team members. In addition, the advances described here will make their jobs less laborious, extend the careers of older team mem- bers and help attract new hires.
Finally, these advanced technologies will help stampers usher in “smart” pressrooms and mitigate the effects of brain drain.
Progressive-die setups can be quite complicated, requiring the setup team to perform multiple steps and manage numerous variables. When done well and swiftly, production runs smoothly and profitably. When done slowly or poorly, output, quality and profitability will suffer.
State-of-the-art press controls, with the proper addition of sensors, can help automate many setup tasks. Con- trols can monitor and control vari- ables such as shut height, counter- balance pressure and cushion pressure. Upon job recall, the setup person can initiate these actions while moving on to perform other tasks that cannot easily be automated. Then, sensors ensure that the actual settings match those in the stored job recipe. Setups occur more efficiently, and when training new hires we can be rest assured that settings in the job recipe will return to optimal values,
experienced setup person.
Modern press controls also can
communicate with and send signals to equipment up and down the press line—feed lines, transfer systems and other auxiliary equipment. These machines in turn recall the matching recipe and initiate automatic adjust- ments for the next job. As a result, not only do setups occur more quickly and accurately, but labor is reduced. We eliminate the bending, stooping and turning of cranks, and the use of hand tools and other manual tasks, making setups easier and less tiring, and min- imizing the risk of injury. And, for new hires, the job becomes more enjoyable, improving retention.
Improving Press-Line Availability
Improved setup accuracy provides more than just production efficiency, it also avoids errors that can lead to
An optical sensor detects scrap-system crossbar motion while the press
control monitors sensor input, stopping the press if crossbar motion stops.
This is one of several sen- sors that allow the machine to safely run unattended.
38 MetalForming/March 2022
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