Page 19 - MetalForming November 2019

bished Wayne Trail and Livernois transfer units and other automated welding and assembly systems.
Of course, press controls represent one means of seriously enhancing productivity. About four years ago, Omni Manu- facturing reached out for press-control solutions, according to Kenni Dawley, director of controls and automation systems for Helm Instrument Co., Inc. Ultimately, Helm supplied a custom control, installed in January 2018 only three months from order to first production on a 1500-ton mechanical press. This control features remote-I/O junction boxes on the press, saving on machine wiring. Omni Manufacturing added another Helm control for a 300-ton mechanical press in January of 2019. Both presses, bought used, underwent complete refurbishment at Omni Manufacturing prior to the controls installations.
These controls, each with a Rockwell Automation/Allen Bradley Compact GuardLogix PLC backbone and safety I/O modules that exceed industry and Omni Manufacturing- specific safety regulations, feature 32 channels of die mon- itoring as well as four channels of tonnage monitoring. The controls also provide programmable limit switches for acti- vation of the press feed (both presses incorporate feeds with their own controls) and to address other line needs such as die lubrication. Other control features: automatic shut- height and counterbalance control. Motors are controlled via Ethernet/IP to ABB drives. And, remote monitoring
This 300-ton mechanical press also benefitted from a new con- trol package. Control features on both the 300- and 1500-ton presses include die and tonnage monitoring, automatic shut- height and counterbalance control, and 100-job-recipe storage. The controls can be remotely accessed for troubleshooting and stamping-process optimization.
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