Page 22 - MetalForming November 2015

Stamping Millions of
Miniature Parts
...via high-speed link-motion presses is the forte of Minneapolis-area metalformer Meier Tool & Engineering. The unique link-motion presses provide three distinct benefits: improved dimensional tolerances, reliable slug removal and increased die-component life.
When the first link-motion high-speed press first landed at Meier Tool and Engineering in 2000, its benefits were immediately recognized and a real competitive advantage resulted. So says tooling manager Tony VanDanacker, who at the time served as manufacturing man- ager for Meier, which operates out of a 35,000-sq.-ft. plant in Anoka, MN. It specializes in stamping small, intricate parts from thin-gauge sheet for the medical and defense/electronics indus- tries. VanDanacker recalls the first big job Meier completed on that first link- motion press, a 25-ton model from Yamada Dobby.
“We were stamping tiny formed parts that were post-heattreated,” he says, “and after heattreating the resid- ual stresses in the formed parts often caused bend angles to move out of tol- erance. We simply were unable to make the parts to our customer’s satisfac- tion. When we brought in the link- motion Yamada Dobby press, its 11- deg. dwell at bottom sufficiently allowed the release of those residual stresses so that we were able to main- tain dimensional tolerances after heat- treating.”
That success bred future invest- ments in the link-motion high-speed (to 800 strokes/min.) presses. The plant
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Miniature stampings with a lot of complex geometry is where Meier Tool & Engineering hangs its hat. Examples are these electrical connectors stamped from beryllium copper. Tolerances on the male component (±0.010 in.) are tighter than on the female, so Meier stamps them on its Yamada Dobby link-motion high-speed presses.
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now is home to six Yamada Dobby presses—three 25-ton models and three 40-ton models, in addition to seven conventional high-speed press- es and a 2011-vintage Aida 110-ton gap-frame servo press.
Meier processes metal strip from 1⁄4 to 3 in. wide, with its sweet spot some- where around 1 in. Material thickness ranges from 0.002 to 0.125 in., with a sweet spot around 0.006-0.007 in.
Conversions
The healthy market for disposable surgical instruments and implantable devices has nourished Meier’s expand- ing waistline—medical work now com-
prises nearly 70 percent of its diet, up from 45 percent just 5 years ago. One trend the company has leveraged: OEMs seeking to convert machined and metal-injection-molded (MIM) parts into stampings, where significant cost savings can be realized.
“We built this business,” says oper- ations manager Jon Preston, “on that very capability. Our sales force is skilled and trained to look for potential con- version opportunities, and we also focus on educating customers to iden- tify parts that might be ripe for con- version to metal stamping.”
One recent conversion triumph: dis- posable biopsy forceps, which used to