Page 34 - MetalForming August 2017

Press Feeds
Pay Off for Wisconsin Stamper
32
MetalForming/August 2017
www.metalformingmagazine.com
With a culture of adopting new technology to boost capabilities and competitiveness, Manitowoc Tool & Manufacturing has invested in new coil lines. The results are impressive.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
With a brand-new 20,000-sq.- to grow. MT&M grew its space—the
ft. addition, Manitowoc Tool
& Manufacturing LLC (MT&M) now approaches 140,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space at its facility in Manitowoc, WI. Under roof, the fam- ily-owned company does seemingly everything under the sun to turn sheet- metal blanks and coil into parts and assemblies for lawn-and-garden, truck- ing, automotive, RV, lighting, lamina- tion and other customers. MT&M pro- vides tool and die design and build, and three-shift metal stamping in annual volumes from 1000 to 3 mil- lion-plus parts via 18 presses in capac- ities from 60 to 800 tons. Other process- es include waterjet cutting, and a host of value-added services including spot welding and assembly.
It’s a far cry from 1965, when, as Manitowoc Tool & Die, the business debuted in a downtown Manitowoc garage as a die builder. Over the years, as the company’s production machin- ing took off, the business was split into Manitowoc Tool & Machining and Manitowoc Tool & Manufacturing to give each segment a better opportunity
just completed expansion is number eight—to house increasing capabilities and state-of-the art technology.
Press Feeds Add Flexibility and Aid Setup
That tradition continues. In 2014, the 135-employee-strong company began adding new Seyi mechanical presses, first a 440-tonner followed by a 660-ton unit. Both feature coil-feed lines from Dallas Industries, Troy, MI. Another 660-ton Seyi press arrived at the end of 2016, with Dallas feed equip- ment now on its way to support that unit (the line currently carries a tem- porary feed setup from Dallas). In its stamping operations, utilizing progres- sive and hand-fed dies, MT&M works with stainless and mild steels as well as aluminum. Material thickness ranges from 0.010 to 3⁄8 in. with a fair amount of prepainted sheet feeding the presses.
“Being a job shop, we produce a bit of everything here,” explains Chuck Reinhart, company president. “Within our varied product mix we are getting into wider and heavier material, so we