Page 65 - MetalForming October 2010

receiving fasteners in the die at a max- imum press speed of 70 strokes/min., depending on the size and shape of the part being fed.
“Bottom line,” Lanni stresses: “In-die automation will not slow you down, and nearly every system installed nowa- days will pay for itself in less than one year.”
Why In-Die?
The benefits of assembling parts in the die are numerous—one operator runs the press and monitors fastener installation, with no need for secondary operations and the floor space, energy and manpower required. Logistics costs drop, as bins and cartons of in-process parts inventory no longer need to trav- el the shop floor to and from secondary operations. And, shops that assemble mechanically rather than using welding to attach nuts and other fasteners avoid harmful weld fumes and spatter, and the associated cleanup costs. Lastly, parts
can be assembled without concern for health or technical issues surrounding the fabrication of precoated and pre- painted materials.
Of course, careful consideration of the type of fastener used is critical, as is the design of the fastener-installation equipment developed to feed the fas- teners to the die, insert them in the die and ultimately onto the stamped part. Otherwise metalformers may not obtain the desired results from their capital investment.
“All of the companies involved in a project must function as a team,” stress- es Lanni, calling out the stamper itself (‘Can the press-line equipment take instructions from the fastener feed unit and its control, and send signals back to the feeder?” he asks), as well as the die shop (“Is the die design robust enough to handle the fastener feeder and instal- lation heads?”) and the supplier of the fastening system (“Is the feed system robust enough?”)
Productivity Hurdles are Low, But Take Care to Clear Them
Asked about common hurdles that can cause an in-die fastening system to stumble, Lanni starts by focusing on fastener selection.
“The fastener selected for a given application must be able to be robustly set in the die hit after hit,” Lanni says. “Choose the wrong style of fastener and it can be crushed or the threads destroyed. In short, you need an automation-grade fastener that’s been designed to be set in a stamping process and capable of meeting the torque-out and push-out performance in the sheet with a given thickness and hardness.”
Metalformers select from three dif- ferent styles of fasteners—a self-pierc- ing nut, a clinch fastener and a riveting- style fastener. Lanni suggests stampers avoid the use of self-piercing nuts at all costs, because “you can’t guarantee that the slug will be pulled out. We do, how- ever, see these installations from time to
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