Page 17 - MetalForming January 2010

The Need for Speed
As the sayings go, “You can’t teach speed,” and, “There’s no substitute for speed,” and when you’re processing blanks by the hundreds of thousands, both sayings ring true. “Not only is the new line fast,” says Morton chief drafts- man Alex LeBaron, “but it can run at rated speed even when we’re perform- ing edge trimming as specified by our customers. With the older machine, we
had to reduce the line speed for edge trimming, so it could keep up with scrap chopping. We no longer face that restriction, and as a result the new line runs at about a three-to-one produc- tivity improvement. We no longer need to outsource any of our blanking, and in fact we have plenty of excess capac- ity on the line to handle future growth when the railcar industry once again flourishes.” MF
The overwhelming majority (80 percent) of the material processed at Morton runs through its seven blank-fed stamping presses, rated 400 to 800- ton capacity. The firm manufactures anti-slip walking surfaces for railroad- car builders, including running boards, brake steps, end platforms and intermodal platforms.
where strip is trimmed to the proper width, automatic self-threading scrap chopper, hands-free threading system, dual-motor grip feed, shear, drop stack- er and automatically lowering stack table. The 2008-vintage Red Bud not only runs faster than its older brother, but it also boasts a longer feed length, 84 in. compared to 48 in. This allows the line to process longer blanks with fewer feed strokes (with capacity to 14 ft.), and longer blanks are preferred by Mor- ton’s customers to minimize the num- ber of seams in the walking surfaces.
Reducing setup time also has become critical for Morton, as it has for so many manufacturers today. Where once the firm used to run an entire coil using the same setup for edge trimming and feed length, now it’s faced with performing as many as five or six setups per coil, as order size has shrunk. “Thanks to having all of the controls for the blanking line in one operator location,” says Ogden, “we can change over the line in 5 min., nearly three times faster than before.”
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