Page 4 - MetalForming December 2009

Serving those who create precision metal products using stamping, fabricating and other value-added processes.
Cover Story
18 A New Day Dawns for this Wisconsin
Heavy-Metal Fabricator
D&S Manufacturing puts the pedal to the metal to increase the velocity at which parts and assemblies move through its 140,000-sq.-ft. plant, with impressive results to show for its efforts—improved on-time delivery, slashed scrap costs and customer rejects, and lead times cut in half.
Features
12 Continuous Coil-Fed Laser Blanking
Recent advances in laser-cutting technology have created a viable alternative to mechanical cutting of developed blanks from coil stock.
16 Cutting with Lasers and Waterjets—The Right
Process at the Right Time
Lasers often have a speed advantage over waterjets. Waterjet, however, can cut through significantly thicker materials, and alternative materials, with ease.
Tooling Technology
24 Trio of New Presses Gets SMED Upgrades
Hydraulic die clamps and die lifters installed on three new mechanical presses boosts press uptime by nearly an hour per shift per press, resulting in an 18-month payback.
December 2009 Online — Volume 43 — Number 12
Commentaries
Editorial ........................3
What Will You Request from Santa, Having Shopped at Fabtech?
Brad F. Kuvin
TheScienceofForming ............22
Determining Maximum Allowable Stretch
Stuart Keeler
Tooling by Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Calculating Cutting and Drawing Forces
Peter Ulintz
Metalforming Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Low Volumes and Tooling Sensors
George Keremedjiev
TheBusinessofMetalforming ........30
Tradeshows: Convert Your Effort Into Business!
Michael Bleau
www.metalformingmagazine.com HOT off the PRESS
Daily News for the Industry
18
16
Covenant Not to Compete 101 24 Douglas B. M. Ehlke
BlackmanonTaxes................32
Tax Law that Cuts Your Cost of Doing Business
Irving L. Blackman
YouandTheLaw .................34
Departments
NewsFronts......................6 TechUpdate .....................8 SafetyUpdate ...................10 Tooling Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 ReaderAction ...................38
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METALFORMING / DECEMBER 2009 ONLINE www.metalformingmagazine.com
Contents
ABOUT THE COVER: Heavy-metal fabricator D&S Mfg., a custom manufacturer of large-scale parts and assemblies for Caterpillar, Oshkosh Corp. and the Trane Co., among oth- ers, sought a process to help it prioritize kaizen events, iden- tify waste and provide greater visibility into its value stream of fabrication processes, including laser- and plasma-cutting machines (shown on the cover), CNC turret presses and press brakes, and four robotic arc-welding cells. It found the solu- tion by performing value-network mapping (VNM). Learn more in our article that begins on page 18.
UNITED WE STAND