Page 38 - MetalForming March 2012

High-Pressure Lube System
Solves Deep-Draw Challenge
Specification of an extremely viscous lubricant to deep-draw heavy-gauge compressor shells in a mechanical press created
a ripple effect impacting several aspects of the project—
the lube-delivery system, transfer-system tooling and the die coating.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
This is a story of true cooperation and teamwork among several suppliers, leading to a successful outcome for a uniquely challenging metalforming application. The task: Engineer a process to deep-draw com- pressor shells in a mechanical press, while avoiding the need for secondary operations. The customer: Bettcher Manufacturing LLC, Reynosa, Mexico, deep-draw specialists
serving primarily the
presses, doing so would have required secondary operations; it sought to run the parts from blank to complete, with holes and forms, in one operation.
Says James: “We opted to have a transfer die designed and built to run the jobs. And, after reviewing the size of the parts and depth of the draws, we knew the job would take every ounce of capacity from our largest
mechanical press, a 900-ton straight- side.”
One Heavy-Duty Lube
To run the job in a mechanical press, James and his team also knew that the lubricant and lubricant-application system would hold the keys to the suc- cess of the project. And with part vol- umes of around 1 million per year for
HVAC market. The plant operates hydraulic and mechanical presses rated to 900 tons.
Early in 2011, Bettch- er tooling-project engi- neer Gary James faced the challenge of engi- neering a process to deep-draw two families of parts for a compres- sor shell. Upper shells are of 0.155-in.-thick steel with draw height ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 in.; bottom shells are of 0.215-in. steel, with a 7- in. draw height. While Bettcher could easily have formed these parts in any of its hydraulic
Operators at the Bliss 900-ton press feed blanks into an idle station in the seven-station transfer die, which consumes nearly every cubic inch of avail- able press space. The transfer station lifts up and out of the way when Bettch- er needs to run the press in the progressive-die mode, using a stationary coil- feed line (far right).
one of Bettcher’s pri- mary customers, failure was not an option. The customer had given James and his team six months to move the job from development through to production.
“To run the shells on our big-bed mechanical press (a Bliss 900-ton straightside),” says James, “we knew we had to use the most viscous lube we could find.” The lubricant of choice is a 2000-SUS viscosity heavy oil delivered straight from a 30-gal. reservoir at the press. To provide a system to move the oil from the reservoir to sev- eral nozzles stationed in
36 MetalForming/March 2012 www.metalformingmagazine.com