Page 14 - MetalForming August 2010

Stamper
Blossoms from Captive to Contract Supplier
A 12-in. alligator-style peeler feeds Hickory Springs’ new 110-ton press, to allow for hands-free threading of particularly thick material. The two-axis peeler table has a telescoping peeler blade to reach the leading edge of the coil, and an upper dekinker table that includes a motorized threading roll. During threading, the leading coil edge is pinched between the roll and the peeler table, and then the peeler table lowers to dekink the material.
Three new coil-fed press lines allow a captive metalforming shop that once only supplied its furniture-making parent company to cultivate high-volume just-in-time contract-stamping opportunities.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Also critical to its successful imple- mentation of the new lines was a new 12-in. alligator-style peeler that feeds the 110-ton press, to allow for hands-free threading of particularly thick materi- al. Supplied by Coe Press Equipment, Sterling Heights, MI, which modeled the device after similar technology developed several years ago for its large- capacity machines, the new peeler- dekinker provides hands-free motor- ized threading capability for users of small and mid-sized straighteners. “It allows us to thread up a new coil of that heavy stock in less than 5 min.,” says Williams.
Coe Press also supplied (along with its distributor partner Stafford Machin- ery Co., Little Rock, AR) identical, more conventional feed lines for the 200- and 600-ton lines that include servo feeds, straighteners, threading reels, and 10,000- and 20,000-lb.-capacity coil cars, respectively. The servo feeds mount to the press and pull material out of a free slack loop. A 42-in. line mounts to the 600-ton press, a 36-in. line to the
While it’s particularly exciting these days (for obvious reasons) to hear metalforming-plant managers boast of new equipment hitting the shop floor, it’s also nice to hear how from the very start, thought has been given to optimizing the run time of said equipment. Such is the case at the Ft. Smith, AR, metalforming plant oper- ated by furniture-component manu- facturer Hickory Springs, which recent- ly installed a trio of new coil-fed Aida press lines.
Why invest in new press capacity now, in light of the economy? Certain- ly not to manage increased orders from the parent company, which continues to
face increased competition from off- shore suppliers. Instead, the significant addition of press capacity (110-, 200- and 600-ton Aida presses) to the facil- ity aims to set the shop up as a contract stamper, as it looks to grow outside from its parent. And, from the begin- ning of its journey back in 2006, plant management has had its sights aimed in the right direction.
“We focused our new press-line spec- ifications to optimize run time and min- imize downtime,” says plant manager Allen Williams. “To get there, we knew we had to achieve maximum line speed, minimize material waste, speed coil- threading time and optimize coil size.”
12 METALFORMING / AUGUST 2010
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