Page 26 - MetalForming August 2017

Servo Successes
another cost advantage to using the servo concept for stamping.”
Of course, meeting tight assembly- plant deadlines and ever-increasing volumes (part runs average 12,000 to 15,000 and the presses undergo die changes three times/day) requires solid overall equipment effectiveness, and that’s exactly what Thai Summit has experienced. Says executive manager of plant maintenance Ed Phillips:
“I look at availability and press time, and the performance charts for these newer servo-transfer presses are impres- sive; both presses are running at greater than 97 percent availability.”
The presses run some 60 different parts for the F150 program from a handful of dies, from 0.7- to 3.5-mm- thick aluminum in the 5000- and 6000- series grades.
Mitigating the Damage from Reverse Tonnage on Thick Stock “Shearing 3.5-mm stock,” says Matt Reed, a first-shift supervisor in the
firm’s press-maintenance group, “can cause a lot of reverse tonnage and vibration in the entire press system. The ability to slow the ram at the bot- tom of the stroke minimizes that shock and prevents damage to the press and the tools.”
“Our dies are designed and opti- mized to run in the servo presses,” adds Hylton. “Using AutoForm to run forming-process simulation, we can optimize the stamping process using the unique capabilities of the servo presses to help us overcome issues with thinning and fracturing, etc. And, where simulations don’t identify form- ing issues, we can be less selective about which press we employ for a given job.
“Further,” he continues, “once we identify the tonnage needed to perform all of the required piercing, forming and trimming for a job, we then look at speed—how fast do we need to run a job? Faster typically means we run it on the servo presses.”
Resting on its Laurels? Hardly
Thai Summit America continues to expand, and will soon launch produc- tion of aluminum stampings and assemblies for the 2018 Ford Expedi- tion/Navigator program, as well as for the Tesla Model 3.
“Thai Summit is expanding,” says Hylton. “We have a new facility opened recently in Kentucky that, in addition to a tandem line and servo-transfer press, also houses a second huge trans- fer press that we will customize to make it behave similarly to a servo. And, some of the Expedition/Navigator work will run in Kentucky as well.”
Servo-Mechanical:
The Flexibility of Hydraulic, with Greater Speed
“I think a servo-mechanical press covers probably 80 percent of the work that a hydraulic press can perform, but nearly 100 percent of what we would need the press to do,” is how Manor Tool and Manufacturing Co. president/
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24 MetalForming/August 2017
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