Page 20 - MetalForming September 2012

Servo Press
a Centerpiece of Strategic Expansion
Here today, gone tomorrow—stampers know too well that jobs on the floor today can be on a competitor’s floor tomorrow. That’s why managers at Batesville Tool & Die strive to leverage new technology to stamp difficult parts. Its latest fulcrum: an Aida servo-drive press.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Batesville Tool & Die invested $10 million to build a new addition to its 255,000-sq.-ft. plant and acquire two new big-bed presses, including this Aida 800-ton two-point servo-drive press. The addition boasts a ceiling height of 32 ft. to accommodate larger presses, and an expandable under-floor scrap conveyor that moves scrap outdoors. A Coe servo-feed line delivers material to the press from 72-in.-dia. coils; material capacity is 0.090 in. thick by 60 in. wide to 0.312 in. thick by 12 in. wide.
Taking on very complex and increasingly large, high-tonnage automotive stamping jobs— that’s how Batesville Tool & Die (BTD) CEO and president Jody Fledderman characterizes his company’s focus over the last several years, as well as its approach to research and development.
“We don’t necessarily set aside money for R&D,” says Fledderman. “We learn on the job. We look for learning opportunities presented by large and complex jobs, and then oftentimes we figure out how to best produce the parts after we win the bid.”
“Figuring it out,” as Fledderman says, often means leveraging new tech- nology, well before many other stam- pers make the same leap of faith. Such is the case with BTD’s most recent investment, an 800-ton Aida servo- drive press. It’s the kingpin of the com- pany’s most recent expansion, its first- ever “strategic expansion,” says Fledderman, to allow for future work. This as opposed to the capacity-driven expansions company managers had become familiar with in the past.
“As a management team, there are certain product lines we want to get into,” shares Gene Lambert, BTD vice presi- dent of sales. “Big deep-draw programs are one example. We believed we need- ed to add capacity for this type of work, and we didn’t want to just add capaci- ty, we also wanted to add technology.”
Technology came not just in the way of the servo press, but also via a 1200- ton conventional straightside mechan- ical press. It’s outfitted with a three- axis servo-transfer system, the firm’s first press-mounted servo system. Pre- viously, it ran all transfer dies using die-mounted servo systems.
“The world is a different place than it used to be,” notes Fledderman. “We’re trying to do a better job of selecting
18 MetalForming/September 2012
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