Product category:
CNC punching and profiling
News Release from: Mate Precision Tooling | Subject: Continuous Edge Form Embossing Tool
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 29 March 2004
Turret punch embossing tool ousts spot
welding
Continuous edge form embossing tool used in a CNC turret punch press reduces electrical cable cover components from three to one and eliminates spot welding.
Fabricated metal covers used in electrical cable routing systems require flanges on tray edges Previously fabricated from three components and spot welded to form an assembly, the finished trays had a high labor content and the fabricating process was slow
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 18 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Turret punch press tooling is fully guided
Mate Precision Tooling will introduce its Fully Guided Tooling System for Murata Wiedemann turret punch presses at the USA's FABTECH 2008.
Punch press tooling life tripled, set-up times cut
Fabricator equipped a Strippitt CNC turret punch with Mate Xcel thin turret tooling, and more than tripled tool life and improved part quality and set-up times.
Part-to-part quality was difficult to maintain and material deformation occasionally occurred in the spot welding process.
"We fabricate many cover variations in relatively small quantities," reported Adrian Paunescu, product engineer for Thomas and Betts, a world-leading manufacturer and total business solution provider of industrial electrical products.
"We needed to find a better way in order to eliminate the spot welding process.
Further reading
Mate tool system raises CNC punch press precision
A guided tooling system designed by Mate Precision Tooling for all Strippit styles of punch presses is claimed to offer precision for achieving the highest piece part quality and maximum productivity.
Mate CNC punch press slitting tools have long life
CNC punching tools designed by Mate for users of Trumpf CNC punch presses include a long life slitting tool and a catalogue describing a wide range of tooling for Trumpf presses.
Mate tools stamp numbers on sheet parts
A sequential numbering tool by Mate Precision Tooling stamps sequential serial numbers, dates and codes - up to six digits - on sheet metal parts produced in CNC punch presses.
We operate in a lean manufacturing environment and continuously look for ways to reduce manufacturing operations.
Because we have a high level of programming ability with our fabricating machines, we thought we could produce these parts with the siderail feature on the turret press so that no welding would be needed.
Anytime we can reduce multiple machine operations, we save machine and labor costs.
Just as important, work-in-process is reduced which results in more cost-savings for the company." The tool design and machine programming challenge - Thomas and Betts manufacturers its cover products out of.040 inch aluminum, and mild and galvanized steel.
Cover sizes range from 6 to 42 inches with quantity requirements varying from 100 to approximately 3000 of a particular design configuration.
Both curved and straight covers are required for these parts.
The challenge was to design a versatile enough tool and the programming to make it work with all of the size variations and to do it all on one machine -- the company's turret press.
"What's so unique about Thomas and Betts application is the wide range of product variations and sizes they're able to produce with a single forming tool and at a high output rate," reports Dennis Lowry, engineering manager of Mate Precision Tooling.
"Forming a flange on a precut part in a turret press with a forming tool is a common technique.
The key for the Thomas and Betts application was bringing together a workable tool design and a lot of creative machine programming to make the tool produce the covers for all of the needed product variations.
Thomas and Betts product engineers and programmers are among the best we've partnered with in designing the product and tool programs to really extend the tooling's performance range." Mate UltraForm Tooling Provides Cost-Effective Long-Term Solution Mate originally proposed two of its UltraForm siderail tools to do the job, one to handle the curved covers and a second to make the straight covers.
But Paunescu and his programmers wanted to keep things as simple as possible using one turret press and one tool to produce all of the cover variations.
So Mate designed a 3-1/2D station UltraForm tool assembly consisting of the upper holder, punch and a spring loaded lower assembly.
The spring loaded lower assembly was used to keep the flange material from adhering to the punch on the upward stroke.
"The Mate UltraForm assembly tool raises the pre-cut material edge up 90 degrees in one inch increments per press hit," reports Paunescu.
"It wipes the material upward so a continuous, smooth siderail is created without kinks or interruptions on the surface of the part.
And the tool performs without problems using the spring loaded lower assembly design even on galvanized steel which can get sticky on the tool components, especially at higher press speeds." According to Paunescu, most of the company's cable trays are produced on the turret press out of 48 x 144 inch sheet material.
Initially, cover components are punched to shape with a special shape nibbling tool, which prepares the part edges for the forming process.
The nibbling sequence is done at top press speed up to 900 hits a minute on contours with the aid of a built-in 'Slug-Free' die.
This die feature clears the slug every cycle thereby eliminating slug pulling which can slow or stop the process.
The followup forming operations are done at slower but nevertheless, highly productive press speeds between 400 and 500 hits per minute.
This speed range handles the one-inch forming increments per hit, both curved and straight, with consistent quality and without overburdening the machine, tooling and part programming software.
Mate UltraForm length adjustment feature saves setup time - with the wide range of parts, sizes and different materials, tool adjustment is a factor going from one part run to the next.
Mate's UltraForm adjustment feature facilitates these changes while improving productivity.
Once installed in the machine, the tool can be reset without removing it (most other brand forming tools require removal).
Adjustments of 0.002 inch (0.05mm) per 'click' of the punch head can be made quickly and easily while angle settings are possible of 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees.
Part quality improved, scrap eliminated, part cost reduced - results using the special edge forming tool were dramatic.
According to Paunescu, "the covers fit and looked better.
Product quality and consistency was increased for all of the product configurations in the various materials.
We resolved a number of quality issues using the new Mate UltraForm tooling that we couldn't change using the welding process.
Covers were flat with consistently smooth sides that didn't require secondary operations.
Spot weld marks were eliminated and so were scrapped parts." Estimating the life of this kind of UltraForm tooling, Lowry reports forming tools can be used for 10 to 20 years for applications like Thomas and Betts without major wear to the tool components.
"No cutting or piercing is involved so the tool's edges don't wear or need sharpening," says Lowry.
"An occasional cleaning of the tool components and a possible replacement of the die springs after several million hits is about all that is needed to keep this tool performing at top efficiency for many years. Request a free brochure from Mate Precision Tooling ...
It's really a good tooling investment for both the short and long term.".
• Mate Precision Tooling: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
