Page 22 - MetalForming March 2013

Operators Revel in
Hydraulic-Press
Controls Refresh
Press controls running with obso- lete HMI (human-machine inter- face) software that would only run on Windows NT created huge pro- ductivity hurdles at metalformer Tole- do Metal Spinning Company (TMS, Toledo, OH). Only heroic efforts by the firm’s IT technicians and press opera- tors enabled it to continue to meet cus- tomer requirements, as hydraulic-press uptime suffered mightily due to control problems. We’re talking monthly shut- downs, or even more frequently, due to glitches in press-control software and hardware experienced by the 1998-vin- tage presses—250- and 400-ton models.
“We were limping along,” recalls TMS vice president Craig Fankhauser, harking back to 2007-2008. “Our tech- nicians were spending a considerable amount of time troubleshooting those two presses, chasing control hardware and software issues. We had no com- puter-hardware support, and replace- ment circuit boards became very diffi- cult to find. But while downtime events often would last several days, we always made delivery dates. But it was difficult and costly.”
One-Piece Flow
TMS’s two hydraulic presses work in production cells along with circle and square shears, plasma-cutting machines and deburring equipment. The firm moved to cellular manufacturing and one-piece flow, and away from batch manufacturing, when it retooled fol- lowing a devastating fire in 1998. In addition to the hydraulic-press cells, its 100,000-sq.-ft. main production facili- ty also features metal-spinning lathes, robotic welding and finishing cells, fab-
Noting that deep drawing in a hydraulic press is not a “set it and forget it” process, the crew at Toledo Metal Spinning celebrate the benefits of newly updated press controls—faster setups, improved reliability and safety, and the ability to make process adjustments on the fly.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
rication equipment and CNC machin- ing centers.
TMS built its reputation on deep- drawing, spinning and fabricating stainless steel, and that remains a spe- cialty of its 35-employee workforce. Some 65 percent of the material mov- ing through the shop is stainless, pri- marily deep-draw-quality Type 304 from 24 to 4 gauge; the sweet spot, says Fankhauser, is 14 to 7 gauge. Press bed
size measures 48 by 48 in.; draw capac- ity is approximately 14 in. The presses turn out shells, cans, tubes, hemi- spheres, hoppers, metal enclosures and pans.
“We’re processing 200 to 300 jobs in the plant at any one time,” he says, “in lot sizes of one to 10,000 typically. Most—80 percent or so—are repeat orders. Twenty percent of our work is for our standard product lines, such
20 MetalForming/March 2013
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Press operator Dan Tenney tends to the 400-ton hydraulic press at Toledo Metal Spin- ning, tooled for deep drawing a can. The press resides in a production cell along with plasma-cutting and deburring machines to facilitate one-piece flow.