Page 12 - MetalForming March 2012

Tech Update
Hydraulic-Press Automation is the Future at this Danish Deep Drawer
Increasingly stiffer competition, not the least of which comes from low-cost countries, is accelerating the pace of automation use by stampers within the European metalforming industry. Case in point: Danish firm C&K Johansen, a specialist in deep drawing that pro- duces a large variety of different parts in small and medium sizes for numerous customers, often on short notice. This requires flexibility—noted by company executives as a crucially decisive factor of success. The firm processes mild and stainless steel sheet from 0.4 to 20 mm thick.
“The faster we can reset presses one product to another, the less the size of the batch matters,” says C&K Johansen’s director Peter Moller. In 2008, right in the middle of the recession, C&K Johansen decided to develop a solution (with hydraulic press and automa- tion supplier AP&T) that would significantly
improve the flex- ibility and effi- ciency of one of its production lines. The new equipment was in place and work was com- pleted in Janu- ary 2011.
Two existing
hydraulic press-
es, which had up
to that point
been run manu-
ally, formed the
point of depar-
ture—one a 562 U.S. ton press, the other a 1125-ton model. Both presses are now fully automated and can be used sepa- rately or together. Each press can perform one or more operations depending on the type of part to be produced, and they have
been modified for quick tool changes. The blank feeder used for the presses can cope with sheetmetal as large as 59 by 59 in., to –0.39 in. thick, a feature that C&K Johansen says is unique to the Dan- ish market.
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