Page 21 - MetalForming Magazine May 2022

That Aging Hydraulic Press?
Rebuild or Retrofit
There are numerous reasons to consider a press rebuild or retrofit. Here we present just a few, including the need to optimize cycle times and part consistency.
Today’s metal formers face shorter lead times, tighter tolerances and stricter quality guidelines, all while minimizing their internal production costs. Operating within these guide- lines can be challenging when using hydraulic presses purchased as recently as 10 to 15 years ago, which likely employ outdated technology. That’s why many metal formers are consid-
New PLCs enable process automation by controlling multiple presses within a line, or by integrating a press with auxiliary equipment (shown here). This state-of-the-art, auto- mated, deep-draw hydraulic-press line features robotic blank loading and unloading of drawn shells.
18 MetalForming/May 2022
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ering press rebuilds or retrofits as a way to upgrade older presses with new advancements in press technology.
There are numerous reasons to con- sider a press rebuild or retrofit. Slower cycle times and inconsistent part runs can be byproducts of older presses. At the heart of older press technology likely is a control panel with limited functionality compared to today’s gen- eration of programmable-logic con- trollers (PLCs). Older operator inter- faces have monochromatic keypad displays and provide a slow update time for viewing critical data. These controllers do not store recipes from past press runs, requiring operators to manually enter instructions with each
job setup. Manual setup increases cycle time and the likelihood of errors.
Presses more than 10 years old may include a manual proximity switch to signal positioning on reversal, a critical capability for producing accurate parts. This manual switch only is as accurate as your hand is steady, and parts even- tually may fall out of tolerance. This often is coupled with small propor- tional directional valves that provide a slow pressing speed into the part to achieve an accurate reversal position. With today’s servo-quality proportional directional valves, metal formers can achieve ±0.001-in. positional accuracy at high speeds, due to the rapid response time of the valves.