Page 20 - MetalForming August 2017

Servo Successes
Metalformers share their stories on how servo-mechanical stamping presses have opened doors in applications old and new, and how the technology positions them as leading-edge manufacturers for years to come.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, AND LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
The specific reasons for choosing servo-press technology are as varied as the specific advantages that the technology offers. Increased capabilities and productivity in stamp- ing advanced high-strength steels for automotive; a new servo unit that works as a hydraulic press in beast mode to take on traditionally hydraulic- press applications, as well as whatever new business may come through the doors; the ability to expand design pos- sibilities due to a servo press’s dwell capabilities; increased die life with reduced costs for press maintenance and energy usage; the ability to effi- ciently and precisely stamp aluminum automotive parts... the list goes on and on.
At the end of the day, what a servo press delivers can be described with a single word: flexibility.
In one press, metalformers can take on work once considered solely for a traditional mechanical or hydraulic press. A servo press will work with
materials of any strength, shaping them with features previously only accom- plished via secondary processes. In this age of custom manufacturing, with smaller runs and more numerous part types, flexibility is necessary.
Over the following pages, read how metalformers are making the flexibility of servo-driven presses work for them. Maybe you will find new ways in which the technology will work for you.
Yielding “Perfect Trim Conditions,” Servo Presses Tackle Advanced Steels
Large, big-bed, high-tonnage-capac- ity presses star at the E&E Manufac- turing of TN LLC facility in Athens, TN, opened in 2005 as an adjunct to the firm’s parent facility in Plymouth, MI. While the Michigan plant focuses pri- marily on production of seating and suspension components and assem- blies, as well as supplying stamped fas- teners and parts for military vehicles, the Tennessee facility fulfills a com-
pletely different mission.
“Here we run four big transfer press-
es, each with bed size in excess of 7300 mm and press tonnage greater than 2400 tons,” says TN-plant general man- ager Dan Scherle. “Much of our work goes to the German automotive OEMs— Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes. We’ve been taking on larger portions of body and structural assemblies, stamping 0.7 to 4.5-mm-thick coated steels and advanced high-strength steels (AHSS).”
Aligning its pressroom capabilities with the requirements of its OEM cus- tomers led E&E, in 2014, to turn to servo-press technology, with the addi- tion of a Schuler 1650-metric-ton servo-transfer press supplied as a com- plete turnkey system with an integrated servo-driven shear and coil-feed line.
“We sought minimal integration decisions,” recalls Scherle, “and pre- ferred that Schuler, which manufactures all of the equipment we needed for the line, supply us with a turnkey cell. The leap to servo-based technology at that
18 MetalForming/August 2017
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