Page 30 - MetalForming January 2014

We Put a Press
capacity reasons early in 2012, which most recently received an efficiency upgrade. “We’re very close to achieving our OEE goal,” he says, “a significant upgrade from where we were just a couple of years ago.” He notes that of the pressroom’s 19.2 million stamped parts/month, some 4 million comes from the Minster and 12 million from the Bruderer. That’s a 25-percent improve- ment due, in large part, to an emphasis
on achieving quicker die changes. “To improve die-changeover times, we have worked as a team to implement Kaizen and other lean strategies to ensure we’re prepared to run the next job scheduled for each press,” says Gray. “That means a lot of things, including staging coils and dies, and 5S strategies such as replacing cluttered tool boxes with organized boards of carefully select- ed point-of-use tools. The press opera-
tor’s tool set is now limited to only what’s needed to change dies.”
You Want to Install the New Press Where?
Progressive-die presses undergo an average of 90 changeovers/month, and until recently changeover time hov- ered around 40 min. That’s been whit- tled down to an average of 30 min., and as little as 24 min.
“QDC did not come easily with the Minster press,” shares Gray. “While another facility might have added on to make room for this new press, we did not have that luxury. So we squeezed it into an area inaccessible by a tow motor.”
How, then, does the Minster press operator change-out his dies? “We went to die-cart manufacturer Rico Equip- ment (in nearby Medina, OH) to devel- op a custom solution for us,” Gray shares. The resulting cart is a Rico Model R-DHFP-2T-60 two-tier 6000- lb.-capacity die handler outfitted with a pair of hooked arms that wrap around steel loops LuK bolted to some 150 of its dies. The cart features two horizontal tables on one carriage, allowing die transfer and storage to be performed in one docking operation.
Rico literature notes that its die han- dlers are designed to operate in less area than conventional forklift trucks, due to their tight turning radius. This allows less space between presses and minimizes wasted aisle space.
An Added Bonus
LuK not only employs the Rico die cart to perform die changes on the Minster press, but also uses the cart to changeover the Bruderer press, in place of a tow motor.
“On the Bruderer, the cart has shaved at least 2 min. from our changeover times,” Gray says. “And, considering the delicate, critical nature of some of our high-speed dies and the relative cost of those dies com- pared to the dies used to stamp clutch components, we’re much more com- fortable handling those dies with the die cart rather than the tow motor.”
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MetalForming/January 2014
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