Page 23 - MetalForming March 2013

as deep-drawn cups and pans, conical hoppers used by injection molders, and high-end heavy-duty trash recep- tacles for amusement parks, stadiums and other outdoor venues.”
Lead times have shrunk dramati- cally in the last several months; Fankhauser shares, from 4 to 6 weeks down to as little as one to two weeks.
“Our approach to lean manufactur- ing, cellular manufacturing and one- piece flow has allowed us to absorb these recent lead-time challenges, as has the greatly improved reliability and uptime from our hydraulic presses,” stresses Fankhauser.
Controls Resuscitation
Called on to rescue TMS from its press-control crisis and restore order to its lean processes: Toledo Integrated Sys- tems, Toledo, OH. In 2010, Toledo Inte- grated replaced the
existing operator
screens and PLC con-
trols on both of TMS’s
hydraulic presses,
including all distrib-
uted I/O. Out with
the old, in with the
Among TMS’s stan- dard product lines are these heavy- duty waste recepta- cles, fabricated from 16-gauge stainless steel, shown here awaiting finishing in a robotic cell.
new—for starters, Toledo Integrated installed a Siemens S7-300F-series failsafe processor in each control in place of the existing redundant PLCs. Toledo Integrated prod- uct manager John Eby
explains:
“While safe PLCs have been avail-
able for several years, we’ve not seen them implemented in pressrooms until recently, as their price has dropped significantly to make them more afford- able for retrofit projects such as those at TMS. One safe processor can inter- nally provide the same level of redun- dancy and safety as dual PLCs, providing a simpler and cleaner solution. There’s less wiring, less cabinet space required and fewer maintenance concerns.”
Out on the shop floor, we spoke with press operator Dan Tenney, a 29-yr. TMS veteran, about the new HMI inter- face—a 15-in. color-screen industrial PC loaded with software customized by Toledo Integrated to manage the complex and often finicky deep-draw process. Tenney and his fellow press operators now are called on, thanks to the move to cellular manufacturing,
to run as many as five machines in a cell, not just the stamping press. “That’s why the simpler, more efficient press control makes my job that much easi- er,” says Tenney.
Customized Application Software
To breathe new life into the TMS hydraulic-press duo—and in fact take them to levels of productivity and reli- ability—Toledo Integrated outfitted each with a Siemens Panel PC run- ning Siemens WinCC Flexible appli- cation software. Eby and his team cus- tomized the software to include all preexisting functions, along with enhanced operator-friendly screen layouts and diagnostics.
“The new touchscreen not only is user-friendly,” Tenney says, “but now all of the job parameters are displayed on one screen—ram position, pressure, etc. Before, we had to click through several screens to obtain all of the data needed to monitor the process and make adjustments—and adjustments are a fact of life when deep drawing on a hydraulic press. It’s not a set-it- and-forget-it process.”
The presses each comprise four hydraulic cylinders—two downward acting and two upward acting. Tenney and his peers can program each cylin- der independently with regard to speed, stroke length and force to adjust blankholder force and develop reverse- draw and redraw routines.
“Programming is remarkably faster and simpler,” Tenney continues. “Pro- gramming a new job used to take, on average, 30 to 45 minutes. Now, with easier access to screens and data, and the ability to repurpose parameter recipes from previous jobs to plug into new programs, we can program new jobs in 15 min. or less. Then, as pro- grams run inproduction, we can make adjustments on the fly, which we could not do before.” MF
Part of the control-retrofit project included outfitting each hydraulic press with a Siemens Panel PC running Siemens WinCC Flexible appli- cation software. Toledo Integrated customized the software to include enhanced operator-friendly screen layouts and diagnostics, to enable on-the-fly parameter adjustments during deep drawing.
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