Page 22 - MetalForming September 2014
P. 22
The Brains.
The ProfileSelectTM sinusoidal profile...
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“Coil-fed transfer allows us to squeeze every bit of material out of the coil as possible,” says Kools. “But the dies are more expensive than tradi- tional dies because once we blank we have to separate and rotate the blanks using mechanical or pneumatic devices. We separate the blanks and move them outward, closer to the transfer rails, so that the transfer arms can be shorter—this makes for a more rigid process so we can run more quick- ly. We also rotate the parts to position them optimally for engagement by the transfer tooling, and for optimum design of each die station.
“We use a lot of sensors on the dies and the transfer tooling,” Kools adds. “That said, in most cases we can justi- fy the added cost to the dies within a year or two of production due to the material savings.”
Speaking of Material Savings
Egar stamps primarily frame and undercarriage parts; its sweet spot for material thickness (primarily high- strength low-alloy) is 2.5-3.5 mm. Kools notes that its prog-to-transfer dies run at 18-23 strokes/min.
In one example provided by Kools, stamping a clevis plate from 3.75-mm HSLA steel, converting the part from a progressive die to a prog-to-transfer die enabled a reduction in blank size from 8 by 31 in. down to 9.4 by 19.44 in. (a 26 percent reduction), and a per- piece weight reduction from 4.98 lb. to 3.67 lb. The die features a pneumat- ic shuttle mechanism (with a die— driven bypass cam) and a servo-bar- mounted rotator to reposition the blank after leaving the coil.
“This technology must continue to grow in use,” Kools stresses. “Customers are demanding less-expensive parts from more expensive materials, and the prog-to-transfer die clearly has become part of the solution. There’s so much material being wasted in processes where the die design does not contribute to optimizing material utilization. We’re addressing that in a bigway.” MF
Die Lifters
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Transfer Dies
