Page 34 - MetalForming July/August 2009

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Tooling Technology
next adjacent machine. The right-sized equipment processes the newly inserted part unattended while automatically unloading the previously processed part. This frees the operator to perform other activities while the part is being processed.
As production runs, each piece of equipment has one piece of processed product in the output tray—the opera- tor advances the part from machine to
machine. The
tooling is
angled to use gravity to help slide parts into position. Each set of tooling is sen- sored to cycle the part automatically once the part slides into the proper ori- entation. A system of colored lights lets the operator know that each step in the process is working properly—the oper- ator need not sit in front of a gap press,
for example, and precise- ly align the part into the tooling. Once the tooling has cycled, the part auto- matically
This Chaku-Chaku production line completes draw- er-front forming operations in 13 small presses con- figured in a U-shaped line. Each forming press per- forms one bend. The machines cycle unattended and unload automatically. Below: A drawer-front blank exits the blanking press.
ejects into the exit tray.
Simple and Single Functioned
The equipment is designed to be simple and single functioned for relia- bility and to simplify construction. Kim- ball engineers, basically, broke out the stations of a traditional progressive die,
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