Page 20 - MetalForming July 2015

Press Controls
more quickly—on some tools, hit rate has tripled.”
In all, Ariens invested $220,000 on the press-line upgrade, justified easily, Paplham says, just by being able to protect the press from damage from short feeds and other faults. Add in the eliminated die-repair costs—replace- ment punches, labor, etc.—as well as the increased production and “we’re way ahead of where we thought we’d be in terms of speed and press uptime,” Paplham continues.
“That press will stamp 4.5 million parts this year, a 50-percent increase over last year. And we believe that as we continue to integrate new functions to the Toledo control, we’ll increase pro- duction by another 15 to 20 percent.”
Five Levels of Access
When installing and setting up the refurbished press line, BDC worked with Toledo to establish five levels of access to press-control parameters via the Toledo control. Employees use
unique ID cards rather than access codes, which can too easily be learned by others over time, says Wenzel. Operators cannot adjust the press—only a tool and diemaker can access set- tings such as shut height. And the maintenance group at Ariens also has its own unique level of access.
At the top of the food
chain is the technician at
Toledo, who has access to
the Windows interface to
make major programming
changes to the system. “Toledo also allows the end user, with the required software, to make high-level changes themselves as their needs change,” adds Wenzel, “essentially allowing the customer to alter the look and feel of the control screens based on operator input and skill level.”
On the horizon for Ariens, according to Paplham: “Creating reports from our
The Toledo servo-feed interface, developed for use with the Dallas ProfileSelect feed control, eases feed-line integration. The control was modified to perform basic mathematical functions for Ariens operators, to simplify setups.
desktop computers, using Ethernet access to the press control. That added integration and access to data will help us pinpoint additional paths to improved productivity.
“And, starting later this summer,” he adds, “we’ll be performing similar upgrades to our other automatic mechanical presses, with support from BDC and Toledo.” MF
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18 MetalForming/July 2015
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