Page 34 - MetalForming Magazine May 2023

WINDOWS- BASED Press Controls
...enable this metal forming-plant production manager to perform what he calls “tool and die CSI” (an homage to the television series) as he looks to quickly—and accurately—diagnose production issues. He also can customize the press- control display to show the most critical process data on its home screen and avoid screen shuffling.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
When we last caught up with the management team at automotive-parts supplier Grant Industries, we learned of its over- riding philosophy to “simplify things as much as possible for its operators,” we were told by production manager John Essenburg. Then (3 yr. ago), we were talking about its centralized lubri- cation system delivering premixed lube to each of its 13 presses. That philoso-
phy, which Essenburg notes emanates from company president and owner Robert Grant, rings true today, as evi- denced by the manufacturer’s desire to standardize its pressroom on the same press control—SmartPac models from Wintriss.
“I have the SmartPac 2 on eight presses, two of the newer SmartPac Pro models and one SmartPac Pro Servo,” Essenburg says. “We push to make our pressroom as efficient as we can, and that means quick changeover between runs (i.e., fast die changes and quick setups), as well as minimal downtime in the event of unexpected production disruption. That’s where the newer—and standard- ized—press controls play a critical role.”
The latest control to hit the Grant floor is the SmartPac Pro Servo, which, according to Wintriss, uses a linear position sensor to monitor slide posi- tion and saves unique bottom- and top-return positions for each tool. It can store information for an unlimited number of jobs, and features optional programmable limit switches, die-pro- tection sensor inputs, and tonnage monitoring.
Grade-A Die Protection
“Die protection is a huge focus,” Essenburg says. “Eleven yr. ago when I started here, we outfitted our dies with one or maybe two sensors, trying
to avoid what might be perceived as nuisance stops and lost production time. Now, after vetting and testing several sensors—a personal mission— we use several sensors on every die we run. I can’t place too many sensors on dies, now...we’ve evolved from the fear that sensors lead to production delays to the opposite; in-die sensing gains us production time. We have practically zero nuisance stops.”
Most recently, Essenburg and his team added part-ejection vision-based sensors (Keyence IX360 models equipped with artificial-intelligence technology) to every press, using the SmartPac controls (in all of their vari- eties) to oversee them.
“If we were to rely instead on a laser- beam sensor shooting across a die to sense part-off, the narrow beam could miss a part if it manages to jump over the beam and cause a nuisance stop, and the same could happen with a pho- toelectric sensor,” he says. “With the Keyence vision-sensing units on every press, we no longer need part-ejection sensors on the dies, and as a result have eliminated the nuisance stops.”
When it comes to controlling Grant Industries’ servo presses, the SmartPac Pro Servo can learn the upper and lower limits for as many as 10 stages of slide movement per cycle, according to Wintriss. The operator simply places the control in the “learn mode” and then runs the press through a complete
32 MetalForming/May 2023
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