Page 19 - MetalForming January 2013

press, the firm’s capacity maxed out at a 600-ton press with an 84- by 180-in. bed. One problem with that press: It’s landlocked and positioned in such a way that prohibits operation with a coil line.
“During the last few years we’ve found that more and more customers want to try out their dies with coil feed,” says Mamerow. “Performing 300-part runoffs and capability studies using a blank feeder no longer suffices for many of our projects. We can run 300 parts coil-fed in 20 min.; from strip the process can take hours. And, customers want us to prove out their dies using exactly the same procedures as they will run the dies in production. Strip feed just doesn’t correlate to coil feed.”
Larger, more complex progressive and transfer dies certainly are the norm in the metalforming industry these days, particularly in the automotive and appliance industries where X-Cel focuses. Those industries account for some 75 percent of the firm’s business, while the lawn-and-garden, electronics and recreational-vehicle markets also account for several new programs each year.
Almost immediately after X-Cel installed its first big-bed tryout press, it became “buried with work,” Mamerow says. “We do a lot of work for Ford, and even though that press has a 144-in. bed it’s still not quite large enough for much of the Ford work that goes out for bid. A lot of Ford’s recent projects com- prise 180-in. dies.”
To avoid being limited on what proj- ects X-Cel could bid on, the call went out for yet another used big-bed press. That was in 2007. Among Mamerow’s search specifications: a minimum shut height of 44 in., windows wide enough to accommodate a 72-in. feed line, and enough stroke to allow toolmakers unencumbered access to dies during tryout.
Almost a Needle in a Haystack
Mamerow’s 5-yr. search for the answer to his tryout-press needs took him again to Canada, where he found (in mid-2011) a 1000-ton 1970-vintage
Danly with a 180- by 102-in. bed. A $350,000 refurbishing process launched almost immediately after X-Cel acquired the press. Simultaneously, X- Cel excavated and poured a new con- crete bed for the press in a 60- by 100-ft. addition added to its then 58,000-sq.-ft. building. It also extended an existing 30-ton crane into the new press’ new home, to allow die setting onto the press’ rolling bolster.
The press—72-in. shut height and 33-in. stroke—took three weeks to dis- assemble and ship to various locations for remachining, in sections weighing as much as 150,000 lb. Work began in June 2011 and by November X-Cel began reassembly of the main frame of the press, on its newly poured founda- tion. The building addition rose around the press frame in December and by April 2012 the press was completed and ready for work. Tryout of new, large and complex dies for the Ford Transit program launched in June.
Supplied with the newly refurbished press by local machinery dealer Crane Production Systems Corp., Waukesha, WI, is a 72-in. Cooper-Weymouth, Peterson high-capacity feed line and a Wintriss SmartPac2 press control. As an
option for the control package, Crane Production included a frequency inverter that allows the press to run at varying speeds, allowing X-Cel to try out dies at the same speed they’ll run in production. The SmartPac2 also man- ages the press’ four-point tonnage- monitoring system, “a must for die try- out,” adds Mamerow.
Coil-Line Toughness
Along with increased bed size, Mamerow specified the new press line to handle an influx of higher-strength steels, noting that the 72-in. feed line on the 1250-ton press limits runoff to 1⁄8-in.-thick by 72-in. material. The new, beefier CWP feed line supplied with the 1000-ton Danly boasts several fea- tures, among them a heavy-duty straightener and coil breaker, that enable it to tackle thicker and stronger steels. And while the feed line on the 1250-ton press has 2.8-in.-dia. backed- up straightening rolls on a 3.25-in. cen- ter distance, the new straightener fea- tures 5-in. straightening rolls on 6-in. centers. Further, it’s a four-roll feeder, rather than the standard two rolls, which gives X-Cel the required flexi- bility to handle the extraordinarily wide
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MetalForming/January 2013 17
The feed line supplied with the X-Cel’s newest rebuilt press boasts several features , among them a heavy-duty straightener and coil breaker, that enable it to process high- strength steels. The new straightener features 5-in. straightening rolls on 6-in. centers, and it’s a four-roll feeder, rather than the standard two rolls. This gives X-Cel the required flexibility to handle the extraordinarily wide variety of jobs it processes.