Water jet speeds shaped blank development

The acquisition of a water jet cutting machine has given a press tool maker its biggest advance in reducing lead times in recent years.

Press tool designers and manufacturers Harper and Simmons produce tools for automotive manufacturers.

To remain competitive the company has to keep abreast of the latest technology, offering its customers solid modelling CAD/CAM, automatic blank developing software and CNC machining.

However, the acquisition of an Ingersoll-Rand powered Waterjet Sweden cutting machine has given the biggest advance in reducing lead times in recent years.

The 50HP waterjet machine produces water pressures up to 3,800bar (55,000psi), allowing Harper and Simmons to carry out rapid sample development for press tools whilst the tooling is in the press.

Up to 30 different shaped blanks may need to be tried out before the correct shape is found to enable manufacture of the blank tool.

The CNC controlled waterjet cutting system is employed to cut the relevant material quickly - usually carbon or stainless steel, spring steel or aluminium, in any required thickness, without any distortion or heat affected zones.

The versatility of the waterjet cutting machine is such that Harper and Simmons also use the technology for accurately cutting and slotting a very wide range of press tool components including base plates up to 60mm thick, gauges, locations, shims and packing plates where usually a more traditional machining method would be used.

As components are produced so quickly on the new machine - the twin head design allowing two components to be cut simultaneously - Harper and Simmons have found that they are often left with spare capacity.

This has now allowed them to offer their own subcontract cutting service, even finding that they are regularly undertaking cutting for the same laser cutting business that used to supply Harper and Simmons!.

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