Page 19 - MetalForming July 2015

The press-line overhaul, completed late in 2014 with the help of local equip- ment distributor BDC Machinery LLC, Nekoosa, WI, has made the press “by far our most productive,” Paplham says. “Now we’re focused on applying the same type of performance upgrade to our other automatic presses.”
When Paplham speaks of perform- ance, the first things that come to his mind—pre-press overhaul—are the long setup times and pesky (and often costly) die crashes that plagued the press.
“Crashes and resulting die damage kept our die-maintenance team busy, even on Saturdays,” he recalls. “We had (on the 150-ton Minster) an outdated press control that was an Achilles heel...a ticking time bomb, and it pre- vented us from implementing the in- die sensing that we needed to support the expanding requirements of the pressroom.”
The Timebomb Goes Off
In May 2013, the timebomb explod- ed. Paplham describes how the fuse was lit.
“We had just repaired a die used to stamp clutch handles, and the first time we placed the die back in the press we experienced a short feed and
Stamping these clutch handles in a two-out die once caused huge headaches for the Ariens pressroom. By adding a dual-part-out sensor, with data managed by the newly added Toledo press control, the firm expects to save $250,000 per year in scrap and die repairs on this press alone. “With the Toledo upgrade,” says Ariens tool and die department leader Brad Paplham, “we also were able to add programmable limit switches to the tool and use air cylin- ders to knock the parts out; before we could just use air. The switches allow us to cus- tomize the setups and add cylinders where needed.”
BDC Machinery president Rick Wenzel touts the benefits of Toledo’s open- architecture setup, based on an Allen- Bradley platform:
“The control has standard screens for die protection, programmable limit switches, tonnage monitoring, etc... however, Ariens also can modify the look and feel of the interface screen to its liking. Paplham and his team were able to customize where each piece of data appears on the control screens, and the types of charts and graphs used to display the data.
“We also find that the Toledo interface simplifies feed-line integration,” Wenzel continues, describing the special servo- feed interface developed for use with the Dallas ProfileSelect feed control. The control was modified, he adds, to per- form basic mathematical functions for Ariens operators, to simplify setups.
BDC also
installed, as part of
the press-line overhaul, a
new Spra-Rite die-lubrication system from Industrial Innovations.
Justification a Snap
Now the upgraded Minster runs 55 different tools for the Ariens press shop. Each is equipped with part-out and short-feed sensors. “And we’re looking at adding in-die part meas- urement to some of the tools as well,” says Paplham.
Since upgrading the press, die crash- es nearly have been eliminated, Papl- ham says, and the control makes trou- bleshooting a breeze. The control
communicates information that allows Paplham’s main- tenance team to quickly diagnose any issues and get right to work addressing them.
“As a result,” says Paplham, “the press runs more hours per day, and it’s running
a crash,” he says. “The old press control prohibited us from adding a short-feed sensor. So I finally said ‘enough is enough’ and went to management to pro- pose a capital-expenditure plan. It covered not only upgrading the automatic mechanical presses (starting with the 150-ton Min- ster) but also the addition of in- die sensing as well as quick-die- change equipment, such as magnetic clamping.”
To manage all of the new com- munication between press and tooling, as well as oversee a new Dallas servo feeder with a new straightener-drive package inte- grated into the existing straight- ener, Paplham opted for a new press control from Toledo Inte- grated Systems, Holland, OH.
“Customizing the press-con- trol screen is huge,” says Paplham. “As we add com- plexity to the dies—more lube nozzles and sensors, for example—we can label everything and create easy- to-follow instructions to help guide setup and trou- bleshooting routines for the operators and maintenance technicians.”
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