Page 25 - MetalForming March 2015

via recipe (Fig. 5) to speed production changeovers and gain repeatability, which we didn’t have before,” says Shortridge. “We often have relatively small production runs where a spring may contain as many as 12 different
Power / Speed / Value Since 1937
leaves. In the old days, we would have to manually dial-in new furnace tem- peratures, forming pressures and quench-timer settings when we would change parts to be manufactured. This was time-consuming and could intro-
Fig. 5—The Dayton Parts system uses recipes, selectable using the touch- screens, to streamline production changeovers and ensure repeatability of the leaf-spring manufacturing process.
duce errors and downtime that we can’t afford.”
To tune the motion, Shortridge used the set of tools provided by Delta Com- puter Systems. One of these tools, Plot Manager, enables the designer to visu- ally and numerically compare an axis’ desired motion trajectory with the actu- al motion profile observed in a test run. With this visibility, control-loop parameter gains can be tweaked and the system re-run until the target and actual positions overlap on the plot, showing that the system is perfectly tuned.
“Without the new motion con- trollers and the accurate hydraulic pro- portional control they provide,” says Garcia, “this project would have been a lot more difficult to implement.” MF
SERVO TECHNOLOGY
INFINITE VARIABILITY— FINITE PRECISION
JIER North America, www.jier-na.com, Plymouth, MI USA, 734-404-6751 JIER Machine-Tool Group, www.jiermt.com, Jinan, China, 86-531-81616654
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