Page 21 - MetalForming February 2019

and fabrication equipment for manu- facturing industrial metal siding and roofing. The $10-million hot-stamping line, at 65 m long and 39 m wide (from the end of the destacker to the die cart) is the world’s largest, Teague says. A $10- million project, the line includes a 43- m-long Eisenmann roller hearth furnace and a Macrodyne 1500-metric-ton (15,000-kN capacity per Macrodyne spec- ifications) hydraulic hot-stamping press, which required that the building’s roof be raised 20 ft. in the center press bay area and a press pit installed.
Triple-Purpose Project
The line has three purposes, accord- ing to Teague. “First, we’re demonstrat- ing our capability to provide a turnkey line,” he says. “Eisenmann, as a maker of thermal-process equipment, went into this project wanting to showcase its capabilities as part of a complete line,” which also features a Strothmann transfer system and a Cimco water- treatment system. Telos also has four Trumpf fiber laser cutters that service the line. “Customers come here to touch, feel and do their own evalua- tions,” says Teague. “The demand for hot-stamping lines outweighs supply. By bringing turnkey capabilities to the market, we’re filling a gap as a global
supplier of such lines.” The second purpose: pro- duction parts. “To achieve a return on investment, we’re running pre-production, series production and pro- totype structural parts for automotive customers,” says Teague. “Our state-of-the-art line manufactures cus- tomized press-hardened parts that our engineers—nearly half of Telos’ 40-person workforce—develop in close collaboration with our customers. Our inhouse toolmaking shop supplies the tooling required—from prototypes
through to the serial products.
“The third purpose,” Teague con- tinues, “is to provide training. We’ve held two training forums thus far— in September 2017 and September 2018. These provide opportunities for our global automotive customers and Tier Ones to come and learn from our experts about the technologies involved with hot stamping. (For forum topics and speakers, visit
www.telosphs.com/events).
Large Press Is Perfect Fit
Equipping the line to fulfill its three purposes called for a large, customized press. Having worked with Macrodyne in the past while with Cosma Interna- tional as global director of hot stamping and tooling development, Teague teamed with the Concord, Ontario, Canada-based press builder to develop a custom machine for the line.
The result: a 13-m-high, 5.5-m-wide, 1500-metric-ton hydraulic, hot-stamp- ing press designed to optimize the process, and built in less than a year. “High press speeds are critical, so the
press includes rapid down speeds and proportional pressing speeds,” says Jeremy Neil, executive vice president of Macrodyne. “Higher speeds are achieved at lower tonnages by selecting the number of cylinders to be used at a particular part of the cycle. The press also has the ability to adjust tonnage throughout the stroke.”
The proportional pressing speeds are adjustable from 0 to the maximum speed for each respective profile, using a combination of cylinders as follows:
• Max. pressing speed (to 2500 kN) using one cylinder: 300 mm/sec.
• Max. pressing speed (to 7000 kN) using three cylinders: 110 mm/sec.
• Max. pressing speed (to 15,000 kN) using four cylinders: 50 mm/sec.
Teague says the size of the line is important for processing larger parts, such as door rings measuring 1.8 m wide and 1.52 m tall. “To accommodate larger products,” he explains, “you need mass capacity in order for the furnace to take on the energy consumption required for larger product.
“We considered servo technology,” Teague continues, “but for our pur- poses there were no real advantages. Hot stamping requires heating parts to nearly 930 C, so what we’re forming is highly malleable. To incrementally form the part is not an advantage; the payback isn’t viable.”
Looking ahead and buoyed by the success of the line, Teague says that Telos plans to add a second hot-stamp- ing line, with equipment yet to be determined, “though it easily could include another Macrodyne press,” he says. “The new line will be similar to what we have now and will provide us a contingency line.” MF
www.metalformingmagazine.com
MetalForming/February 2019 19
The world’s largest hot-stamping production line, according to Telos Global officials, is 65 m long and includes (bottom photo) this 43-m.-long Eisen- mann roller hearth furnace.