Page 31 - MetalForming August 2011

Perforated Metals
Add Punch to Product Designs
We spoke with the Industrial Perforators Association and association member company Ferguson Perforating for a close look at the unique metal-perforating
Nearly all of the material running through the Fer- guson Perforat- ing facility feeds its perforating presses as coil stock; 10 percent comes into the plant as blanked sheet and plate. Presses can punch as many as 400,000 holes/min., and 1000 holes/sq. in.
Perforating presses precisely punch hundreds of thou- sands of holes in sheetmetal per minute, programma- ble to meet the whims of product designers seeking to vary hole spacing and develop custom hole patterns for aes- thetic purposes, as well as to meet product-performance goals. Perforated panels find applications in numerous indus- tries—architectural (lighting fixtures, wall panels, sound- absorbing structures), aerospace (fuel and air filters), appli- ances (strainers, microwave screens), automotive (diffusers, muffler guards), HVAC (ventilation, enclosures) and others.
Most metal perforators are job shops that change out their presses five to 10 times per shift, running lot sizes from a few to several thousand—at the low end, think ceiling
panels for an airport; and the high end, think dishwasher strainers.
To learn about this unique process and the select few com- panies that specialize in it, we spoke with the Industrial Perforators Association (IPA), Milwaukee, WI. IPA represents 10 North American perforating companies, nine interna- tional perforators and seven associate members/suppliers to the industry. Among other services, it publishes the “Design- ers, Specifiers and Buyers Handbook of Perforated Metals,” developed as a resource for its member companies and their customers. Topics include strength and elastic properties of perforated metals, how perforated metals are used in acoustics and EMI shielding, and checklists for perforating cost influences and for ordering perforated metal. It’s avail- able for download at www.iperf.org.
Controlled Breakage
“While metal stamping is controlled forming, perforating is controlled breakage,” we were told by Bob Colombi, sales manager for IPA member Ferguson Perforating. “The work- piece material has to break away in the die exactly the way we want it to, to ensure we meet quality specifications for hole
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process, which competes with thermal hole- drilling processes due, in part, to its ability to create thousands of holes per minute without creating a heat-affected zone.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR