Page 30 - MetalForming March 2019

FABRICATION
Automated Tool Monitoring, Storage
Combat Punching-Machine
Downtime
Aiding in proactive-maintenance efforts, some of today’s punching technology incorpo- rates capability that allows for monitoring and managing of tooling inventory. As shown here, QR marking technology captures and records all pertinent information—the tool’s location in the shop, number of times it’s been sharpened, tool height, etc. This enables tool conditions to be viewed in real time, and assigned and managed based on current shop-floor needs.
In the just-in-time environment of modern metal fabricating, “What’s the only thing worse than down- time? Unscheduled downtime.”
Those wise words come from Craig Amedeo, CNC product manager for Amada America, Inc. Based at the Amada Solution Center in Schaum- burg, IL, Amedeo is well-versed in CNC punch press operations, with more than three decades’ experience with the technology. In that time, he’s seen progress to where machinery can per- form self-setup, run lights out given load/unload automation, and self- report issues. Automation and the evo- lution of Internet of Things, or IoT, have altered the fabrication landscape dramatically, and the pace seems to have quickened. Amedeo touches on some of these topics, and how they impact downtime, thus benefitting metal fabricators, in a discussion with MetalForming magazine.
“Years ago, we had no way to monitor tools on turret punch presses,” Amedeo recalls. “Fabricators looked for signs— slug pulling or burrs on parts—indicat- ing a worn tool in need of sharpening.
28 MetalForming/March 2019
www.metalformingmagazine.com
Equipment that ‘has your 6’ goes a long way toward reliable, economical operation, without the headaches of unplanned machine stoppage.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR