Product category:
Press shop and sheet metal working automation, slitting, shearing
News Release from: ABB Robotics | Subject: Aluminium fanning
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 16 April 2002
Aluminium sheet blanks fanned aprt for
picking up
Aluminium fanning for separating aluminium sheet blanks is a process which is set to achieve an immediate transformation in production in automotive press shops.
ABB, the global power and automation technology group and leader in robot-based automation, has designed a process which is set to achieve an immediate transformation in production in Automotive Press Shops The process, called aluminium fanning, has been designed by ABB's engineering team to resolve a serious production issue for automotive manufacturers
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The traditional material used in the manfacture of automotive body panels is sheet steel and powerful magnets were employed to separate the sheets, called blanks, before they were transferred by robots into the press line.
However, today aluminium is increasingly the material of choice for manufacturers and a major production problem arose - the magnetic separation process for blanks was ineffective on aluminium.
Against the clock, ABB experts set to work to find a solution to assist their automotive customers.
In only two years the team designed, tested and optimised a pioneering aluminium fanning process which uses forced air to separate the heavily-oiled aluminium sheets without the need for magnets.
Project Manager and Mechanical Design Engineer, Peter Stumpf, comments on the project: "Our solution is viable, reliable and proven, unlike that of the competition.
We have the physical data that the solution performs and meets the rigorous reliability and maintainability testing audited by the customer." Already the process has won the praise of Ford Vehicle Operation's press stamping operation in Detroit, Michigan, and has earned ABB a Best-in-Class nomination.
ABB now expects to receive the US patent for the new process early in 2002, paving the way for ABB to share this expertise with all its Automotive customers.
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(This was Manufacturingtalk's Top Story on 15 April 2002).
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