Page 21 - MetalForming June 2019

One example: a Ser- voMaster Touch drive and control package, from Coe Press Equip- ment Co., on an existing servo feed for an 800- ton press that stamps parts for an oil-baffle assembly. The feed processes coils to 30,000 lb. in widths to 36 in.
“On the 800-ton
press line, it’s critical
for us keep up with the
required part volume
in order to open up
press capacity,”
explains Richards.
“Prior to the retrofit, we ran more slow- ly and had accuracy issues that dam- aged tooling. The retrofit, in turn, opened capacity because we could pro- duce parts more quickly, and enabled us to move some work from other over- capacity presses.”
Prior to the retrofit, the press feed resulted in increased die repair as inac- curacy led to pilot breakage within the dies.
“As we dug to figure out the increase in die repairs, we found that the feeder was coming up short and inaccurately feeding material,” says Richards. “Some days the feed worked well and other days not so well. Unfortunately, the inconsistency caused a lot of press- line downtime.”
After some initial trepidation— Wellington engineers sought to replace the drive/control system with a similar type, according to Richards—Coe offi- cials provided convincing arguments for the new system’s capabilities and performance metrics, and Wellington made the switch. Within days of sub- mitting a purchase order, Coe person- nel were onsite installing the new drive and control, Richards recalls.
Advantages Abound with Servo-Control Retrofits
Replacing a feed’s servo control pro- vides a relatively easy way of simplify- ing setups while increasing function- ality and improving productivity,
Touch controls enable operators to quickly recall and setup jobs using parameters not available in the old control system.
according to Coe officials, with many new servo controls designed for imple- mentation into existing or new lines within a few days.
As is the case at Wellington, many servo feeds operating today were intro- duced during early development of servo-drive technology. While excellent replacements for air and mechanical feeds, many were built on unsupported hardware and software platforms, claim Coe officials, and stampers may face
extended downtime should a critical drive, motor or motion controller fail. Retrofits, as Wellington has found, deliver programmable control, where many original straighteners and reels in coil-feeding systems featured simple drive mechanisms. Programmability enables development of custom parameters that provide the proper torque for uncoiling and straightening
functions.
The ServoMaster Touch operator
interface is another area where Welling- ton has found improvement through a retrofit. Older roll feeds may offer only basic setup functions, such as feed
A compact control cabinet, retrofitted on an existing servo press feed at Wellington Industries, greatly simplifies access and maintenance.
progression and speed percentage, thus limiting their effectiveness. In upgrad- ing, Wellington gained new feed-con- trol features such as storage recipes, operator prompts, servo feed diagnos- tics, multilingual programming and direct downloading of parameters from the host press.
“Since the retrofit,” Richards says, “the feed has performed extremely accu- rately, to the point that we now are upgrading some of the other feeder com- ponents such as gears and rollers, and performing some other repair work.”
That sentiment is echoed by Jeremy Gilbertson, Wellington maintenance supervisor.
“The new retrofit controls upgrade seems to be running great,” he says. “And, the upgrade is compact, with much less in the control panel. It’s not a 10-ft. cabinet with 50 relays or some- thing similar, which makes it easy to maintain.” MF
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