Try First

Automotive Manufacturing & Production,  Oct, 2000  

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"In just a short time after installing the two hydraulic high-speed tryout presses, we realized that we can reduce the tryout time of new die sets in our crossbar presses by 50%," says Jeffrey Lukosavich, a manufacturing specialist for Ford Motor Co. He's referring to a set of presses--each rated at 1,980 tons maximum slide capacity--that's been installed at the Ford Chicago Stamping Plant. The presses, said to be the first hydraulic presses in the world that use pre-accelerated drawing cushions in the bolster, are capable of exactly simulating the motions of the three crossbar presses that Ford uses in Chicago--which may not be entirely surprising, given that the tryout presses and the production presses are both supplied by Schuler SMG GmbH & Co. KG (which has its U.S. automotive offices in Dearborn, MI). The maximum displacement force in the cushion is 4,500 kN.

A key objective of using the tryout presses is keeping prep work off of the production presses--after all, production presses are an expensive tool to use for setup. As a new die is brought into the facility, it is initially run on the tryout press; in order to facilitate touch-ups and rework, there are a 4,600 x 2,600-mm rolling bolster and a mechanical turnover station for the upper dies. Another benefit of the tryout press is that it permits die spotting (i.e., adjusting the upper and lower dies) prior to stamping operations.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gardner Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning