Page 20 - MetalForming February 2014

Transfer System
“Picks Up Parts Like a Baby
...and sets them down like snowflakes.” That’s how one engineer describes his company’s recent retrofit of a three-axis servo transfer system to a 2600-ton press. Results are impressive—press speed and OEE have doubled.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
In mid-2013, NSC outfitted its monstrous 2600-ton Verson—262 by 72 in. bed size— with an HMS Series 900 HD three-axis servo-transfer system, to address reliability and repeatability issues with an aging servo-mechanical transfer system.
A2600-ton Verson transfer press has new life at the New Standard Corp. (NSC) manufacturing facility in Hellam, PA (just outside of York), thanks to the recent retrofit of a new full-servo transfer system brought in to replace an aging servo-mechanical unit.
“We rode that pony for a long time,” says NSC program manager Greg Eisenbach, describing the previous transfer system installed on the press some 12 years ago. In mid-2013 the firm replaced the unit with an HMS Series 900 HD transfer system, to address reliability and repeatability issues.
“And,” explains Eisenbach, “the new transfer system, commissioned in Sep- tember 2013, also addresses our need for more configurable assets. We’re striving to learn to use our equipment in very flexible ways, and that 2600- ton press is a perfect example.”
Hand-Fed as Well as Transfer Dies
The press variety at NSC-Hellam (NSC also operates a plant in Rocky Mount, NC) runs the gamut, from a 45-ton 28- by 18-in. Clearing to the monstrous 2600-ton Verson—262 by 72 in. bed size. More than 100 NSC associates tend to the 180,000-sq.-ft.
plant’s pressroom. The customer mix: 25-percent HVAC—compressors, heat- exchange bundles, etc., 25-percent agri- cultural, 20-percent heavy truck and bus, 15-percent appliance and five- percent automotive. Much of the work runs in hand-fed single-hit dies, which greatly impacted the design of the new transfer system, explains NSC planning engineer Graham Zifferer.
“To enable the press to run hand- fed work, we had HMS design and build the unit to lift up and out of the way. On a press that large, this was no easy task. While the standard lift axis on this transfer system is 96 in., we needed 130 in.—the largest lift system HMS
18 MetalForming/February 2014
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