Page 36 - MetalForming August 2011

Press Installed
Lickety-Split
This new Seyi 330-ton press stamps parts for Flexco’s line of metal folding steps at
35 to 40 strokes/min., a nice increase compared to the firm’s 1950s-vintage press that previously ran at 25 strokes/min.
It’s never good to suffer a press outage, but when such an outage occurs during peak seasonal production, the crisis reaches code red.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
There’s Nothing Like New
Comparing old to new, Jellison notes that the original 1950s-vintage press ran at 25 strokes/min. The new Seyi, rated to 50 strokes/min., runs at 35 to 40 strokes/min., a productivity increase that has Jellison quoting new work for the press, including a 10-station pro- gressive die required to produce 1.5 million parts/yr.
“The press will pay for itself in less than 3 yr.,” says Jellison, “due not only to increased speed and added capaci- ty, but also thanks to improved part quality and die life.”
Seyi’s SAG series of presses marry a heavy-duty tie-rod frame with full eight-point gibbing. The bed and slide design comprise a honeycomb struc- ture that meets or exceeds 0.0012 in./ft. deflection with load distributed over two-thirds of the die area.
The center drive structure, says Jel- lison, proves ideal for progressive and transfer applications, as it eliminates torsional twist that typifies end-drive presses. Because Flexco runs a variety of dies on its SAG-330, the press’s 10-in. motorized slide adjustment and adjustable air counterbalances has reduced setup times and increased throughput.
Flexco Products’ CEO Tom Jellison calls it a “record installation”—a 10-day crisis period that had Flex- co’s workforce decommission an old, broken stamping press and install and commission a replacement press. The new machine, a 330-ton Seyi model SAG 330, with 48 by 96-in. bed, was needed to maintain production sched- ules for Flexco’s lineup of metal folding steps, built for recreational vehicles.
Flexco is located in the heart of RV country, in Elkhart, IN, and when its 60- yr.-old press used to stamp step com- ponents broke last March, the firm had little time to find a replacement, as the season for RV production was entering high gear.
“We run seven critical dies for that product line,” says Jellison, “and when that press went down, at peak market time, Seyi really stepped up to the plate for us. Once we got the old press out of the building, our riggers had the new press unloaded from the trucks, installed and set up in less than 3 days. Then Seyi’s crew pow- ered it up, mated it to an existing Dal- las servo feed, installed the dies and away we went.”
The seven dies—two- to four-sta- tion progressive dies—that run on the press stamp out hot- and cold-rolled steel, 0.072 to 0.250 in. thick. The press runs two shifts to produce annual vol- umes approaching 500,000.
34 MetalForming/August 2011
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