Page 22 - MetalForming June 2011

Hydraulic Press
Bats Leadoff in this Lineup
An automated production cell tended by a pair of robots blends a 400-ton hydraulic press with a 350-ton 12-ft. press brake. The $1 million cell, which includes manual resistance welding, should pay for itself in less than 3 yr.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
According to the value statement posted to the website of Capitol Stampings, the company does more than just fill orders. It goes beyond components to offer customers “business solutions.”
Make no mistake, the firm can stamp parts. Its 181,000-sq.-ft. plant in the heart of Milwaukee, WI, houses some 30 mechanical-press lines from 90- to 1000-ton capacity. The factory can churn out stamped metal parts in a variety of sizes from a wide range of material types and thicknesses. But with a focus on delivering on its prom- ise to provide business solutions to its customers, Capitol has devoted bound- less energy in recent years to evolve into a fully capable value-added con- tract manufacturer.
“We once were devoted primarily to the power-transmission market,” says company president Gary Wenzel,
Capitol Stampings’ 400-ton Macrodyne hydraulic press receives robotically loaded blanks that are stamped lube-free. The press’s ability to dwell at the bottom of each stroke has improved form-angle repeatability, regardless of variations in steel properties among blank stacks.
referring to Capitol’s legacy
of manufacturing sheave
and drive pulleys, idlers,
sprockets, gears, spindles and similar parts to customers in the lawn and gar- den, agricultural and other industries. Much has changed, though, since Wen- zel and others acquired the company in 2006, with a commitment to broaden its horizons. Lawn and garden now represents only half of the company’s top line—a top line, adds Wenzel, that has grown by 60 percent since 2009.
Hydraulic vs. Mechanical
The newest project fueling the firm’s top-line growth hit the shop floor ear- lier this year, when one of Capitol’s
customers handed over a set of six dies it had been running to stamp large parts for electrical enclosures.
“It needed to pull cost out of the parts,” says Wenzel, “and asked us to take a look at the process (which includes resistance welding reinforce- ment components to the panels), and even inherit an existing mechanical- press line. After reviewing the process and equipment, we felt that in order to truly reduce costs, we could justify investing in a new and completely auto- mated press line.”
Parts for the job are large, heavy and
20 MetalForming/June 2011
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