Page 19 - MetalForming June 2014

To avoid flooding its dies with lubricant and reduce lube consumption, Sun installed the Pax 2-2 pre-pressurized lubrication system on 18 of its high- speed presses. Featured is a 2-gal. reser- voir and two distribution pumps, with a maximum spray rate of 300 cycles/min.
prevent dripping, but also can spray thick lubricants. Since launching its new lubrication program, Sun has installed the system on 18 presses.
Changeover a Snap
The system’s design makes reser- voir refills and changeover from one lubricant to another a snap. Erodenko explains that with its previous lubrica- tion systems, it had to shut off the presses because the tanks were pres- surized with air. “We had to depres- surize the tanks, fill them with oil, repressurize and then restart,” he says.
“Now, the new systems have a little reservoir not pressurized with air,” con- tinues Erodenko. “The operators can fill it up with oil while the press runs, so there is no downtime due to low or no oil. The units also are easier to maintain and clean out. To change lubes, there’s a drain plug on the bottom of the reser- voir that makes it quick and easy to drain, clean and refill.”
Better Control
“We’re getting much better control of where we’re applying the lubricant,” Erodenko continues, “and use several different nozzle designs based on whether we want a wide spray, pin- point spray or something in between. While before we were flooding the tools, now we get the lube—without excess—in the right place at the right time.
“Sometimes we don’t need much lubricant at the front half of a die,” Erodenko adds, “while at the forming area you may need more lubricant.”
On some presses, Erodenko wired the system controls into a cam system on the press. In other cases, they’re wired to SmartPac units (on Bruderer presses), “so that we can set them up to spray after so many counts at a certain angle on the press,” he says. On units not wired directly to the press, Ero- denko installed optional timers to set the time between sprays.
A benefit to using the timers rather than directly wiring the units to the press controls: “We can easily pick the system up and move it—pumps and nozzles—to a press that we have not yet retrofitted with the Pax system,” Ero- denko adds.
Erodenko also notes the improve- ment in the shop environment—no more smoke or mist in the air. And, the distribution pump is adjustable, “so we can cut down on the amount of oil sprayed each cycle and the rate at which we spray—once every 10 press strokes, 50 strokes or 100 strokes,” he adds.
Custom Lubrication Application
...pays off more than just by reduc- ing consumption and eliminating oil cleanup. “In some cases, it allows us to perform more work in the dies, stream- lining process design for stamping complex parts,” Erodenko says. “With more control over lubrication—where and when—we avoid a lot of headaches and redesign time to make something work.”
Erodenko describes one recent case where his crew relied on the Pax lubri- cation system to eliminate a pesky slug- pulling problem.
“On one of our particularly chal- lenging tools, used to stamp the lead frame for telecommunications con- nectors at 300 strokes/min., we had been spraying the oil directly into the tool from the side, our common prac- tice. The tool stamps very thin materi- al (0.007 in.) and features extremely tight tolerances on the punch-die clear- ance (5 percent). We were pulling slugs and experiencing misfeeds.
“We moved the spray nozzles to the bottom side of the strip,” Erodenko continues, “to only lubricate the bot- tom of the strip. This prevented oil from saturating the punches and suck- ing the slugs up out of the die. This job does not run often enough to justify spending a lot of time and money on engineering, so this is a perfect exam- ple of how the flexibility and precision of the lube system pays off.” MF
Each lubrication system includes a pair of piston-style nozzles suitable for spraying light vanishing oil as well as heavy-duty oil. Here, spray nozzles, mounted to magnetic bases, apply lubricant directly onto punches from the side of a die installed on a Bruderer 30-ton high-speed press.
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