Page 20 - MetalForming-January-2019-issue

Servo Finds at FABTECH
Energy-Saving Servohydraulic Presses
AP&T officials were available at FABTECH to discuss the company’s efforts in developing servo-hydraulic press tech- nology, including the company’s own hydraulic test press. The rise in automotive applications for high-strength alu- minum contributed to development of servohydraulic press- es by AP&T, says Patrik Haglund, the company’s product manager for presses.
Forming high- strength alu- minum requires rel- atively high
press speeds
and high
accuracy,
Haglund, but running
hydraulic presses at
higher speeds is chal-
lenging, and costly
from an energy stand-
point. Merging the
benefits of servo-
mechanical presses with
the flexibility of hydraulic presses present a solution to that challenge.
In fact, AP&T has developed a hot-stamping process to produce high-strength-aluminum parts in complex shapes that reportedly can reduce weight by more than 30 percent as compared to steel parts. This innovation arose in tandem with, and helped drive advancements in, servohydraulic- press technology, according to Haglund.
The biggest advancement—and advantage—in the com- pany’s servohydraulic press is individual control of each cylinder via servo drives and hydraulics, according to Haglund. This allows parallelism between the press table and the slide, even if more force is needed in one corner of the part or at different heights along the part. If needed, press force remains consistently high during the entire press cycle, he explains, and can be distributed with precision. This delivers efficient, energy-saving operation and less wear on tools and the press itself. In addition, maintaining such control means not having to overbuild dies to com- pensate for unexpected force.
Redesigned hydraulics represent another advancement. With force and direction controlled via an electric motor, needed valves and other hydraulic components are reduced or eliminated, meaning significantly lower energy consump- tion, less noise and less maintenance. The reduction in energy usage translates to less generation of hot oil, which in turn requires less cooling components.
AP&T North America Inc.: www.aptgroup.com MF
18 MetalForming/January 2019
www.metalformingmagazine.com
notes