Page 18 - MetalForming February 2015

Tool Builder Installs Servo Press
to Better Serve Customers
Unique among U.S. tool designers and builders, Pyper Tool has added a servo press to refine the tryout process, and hopes to incorporate what it learns to build servo-specific dies.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
Jeff Pyper added this Aida servo press, with a Coe feed line, to better serve its stamping customers and position itself as a leader in die design and build. “The future will see a need for tooling built for servo presses,” he says. “Today I see many stampers plac- ing their traditionally built tools into servo presses, and making adjustments based on what the servo press can do.”
In its 43,000-sq.-ft. facility, Pyper Tool & Engineering Inc. designs and builds tooling to feed hungry North Ameri- can and European automotive stampers, who comprise the vast majority of the Grand Rapids, MI, company’s customer base. For three years running, the com- pany, established in 1979, has benefitted from the automotive boom, supplying chiefly progressive tooling to produce tight-tolerance instrument-panel and seating components. Besides supplying for customers that stamp mild and high- strength steel, Pyper Tool and its 62 employees operate across two shifts in creating tooling for aluminum stamp-
ing in ever increasing quantities. Auto- motive is the chief driver for the uptick in tooling for aluminum work.
Given the difficulties in forming a soft material such as aluminum, where galling is a major concern, Pyper’s tool designers and builders are challenged to create tooling that leaves the facili- ty fully ready to perform as advertised on customers’ shop floors. To ensure production of quality tooling for alu- minum and other stamping materials, Pyper Tool has invested in production stamping equipment for testing and tryout purposes.
The signature piece of new equip-
ment is a 300-mton servo-driven press from Aida-America Corp., Dayton, OH, installed at Pyper Tool in October 2014. As of this writing, a feed line from Coe Equipment has just been added, giving Pyper unique capability in offering a full servo-press line for die testing and tryout, in addition to its mechanical tryout presses. Besides the obvious advantages of delivering tooling that promises to perform successfully in production, with the new servo press Pyper Tool can assist stampers with their own research and development. Stampers don’t have the luxury of breaking into a production schedule
16 MetalForming/February 2015
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