Page 34 - MetalForming April 2017

Micro Transfer
Enables Small-Part Deep Drawing
Responding to the needs of its automotive-OEM customer, progressive- die stamper and slideforming specialist Clips & Clamps Industries showcases
its engineering excellence by
adopting transfer technology to draw small parts that probably belong on
an eyelet press.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
The part in question: a wheel-bearing cap stamped from 0.40-mm-thick mild steel with a final OD of 2 in. and a draw of 1.5 in. Its slightly tapered body and offset bead around its circumference would have required a secondary operation had the part been stamped in a progressive die.
300-ton mechanical press.”
Part features—specifically a tapered
body and an offset bead around its cir- cumference—meant that attempting to produce the part in a traditional progressive die would require second- ary operations. In an effort to avoid secondary ops, and to optimize mate- rial utilization by avoiding a healthy carrier strip for the part, the Clips & Clamps engineering team enlisted the help of die supplier RCM Inc., and tool- ing engineer Bob Gunst. Gunst had recently developed a Micro Transfer die-mounted system. It’s designed to bring large-part transfer capabilities to smaller part applications, and Gunst believed the system was perfect for the job.
Metalformer Clips & Clamps Industries plies its trade in Plymouth, MI, the heart of automotive country, and does so by exploiting its engineering prowess. Not- ing that the company always has been engineering-focused, reflecting the mindset of owner Michael Aznavorian (once an engineer at Ford Motor Co.), the company’s director of engineering Jim Williams, says:
“Mike supports our efforts to use technology to appeal to customers. That’s where we shine as a metalformer. We seek to work with customers’ engi- neering teams to enhance their prod- ucts for manufacturing feasibility, and move beyond just quoting to print.”
Case in Point: A Challenging Wheel-Bearing Cap
Such dedication to engineering sup- port for its customers (Clips & Clamps staffs a team of engineers) helps to keep it toward the top of the supplier
list of its number-one customer, FCA. And while Clips & Clamps has diversi- fied by becoming a Tier Two supplier to other major OEMs, its close ties to FCA often reunite its engineering team with that of FCA.
Case in point: a wheel-bearing cap FCA brought to Clips & Clamps a few years ago, which had been manufac- tured in Europe for the Fiat 500, and which FCA sought to source in the United States when it launched vehicle production in Toluca, Mexico.
“We form a lot of brackets and stampings in progressive dies,” says tooling supervisor Jeff Szarek, “but we do not have a lot of drawing expertise, nor the equipment to do so. However, FCA really wanted us to produce these caps (called out as ‘grease cups’ on the engineering drawings), which we all felt were perfect for forming on an eye- let press. As we don’t have that equip- ment, in order to satisfy FCA we sought a solution for drawing the parts on our
32 MetalForming/April 2017
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