Product category:
Press shop and sheet metal working automation, slitting, shearing
News Release from: Muller Weingarten | Subject: SynTEC crossbar transfer systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 29 December 2004
Transfer system development reduces
pressing costs
Installation of a compact suction cup press with the latest crossbar technology reduces the unit cost factor by a bout 20% as against a comparable classic suction cup press.
A huge test machine captured the attention of visitors to the trade fair stand of Mueller Weingarten Erected one after the other behind a 25m x 10m Plexiglass screen were three different SynTEC crossbar transfer systems that moved a car body side panel across four stations
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Dec 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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In terms of its dimensions, the machine corresponded to the forming stations of a compact suction cup transfer press or a large press line.
"What you can see here is a machine that we have built for testing Swingarm, Speedbar and Swivelarm transfer systems in our plants under practical conditions.
You wont see these three systems combined in this way again.
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Nevertheless, their linkage here is a unique expression of the future of parts transport", observed Uwe Hinderer, a member of the board of management of Mueller Weingarten, Germany.
This new generation of transfer system is faster, more flexible and more efficient than previous systems.
It makes it possible to exchange tooling for parts transport between different press shops and press systems.
As well as the Swingarm system for compact suction cup transfer presses and the linear Speedbar system for press lines, the Swivelarm system offers - for the first tome said the company - a crossbar module fore retrofitting to standard press lines and existing machines.
All large presses - new or existing - can therefore be universally equipped with modern crossbar technology.
Synergies through flexibility - Dr Michael Heinrich, chairman of the board of management of Mueller Weingarten - thought that the main demand for flexible transfer technology would emerge from the structural change in progress in the automotive industry.
He said: "Faced with the declining demand and lower levels of capacity utilisation in press shops, car makers are increasingly considering the question of cooperation.
These synergy effects between the marques of major manufacturers could improve press shop capacity utilisation and reduce the pressure on productivity, costs and flexibility.
For their part, component suppliers are stepping forward with the concept of the flexible factory to reduce the load on car makers by helping them to deal with car production peaks or even take over the entire phase-out production".
Dr Heinrich explained the effect that this would have on press shop production: "This demands significantly greater flexibility in press shops than has been possible in the past.
Press manufacturers are being faced with new challenges due to shift in wealth creation chains, requirements for high-speed production changes at the same time as unit cost minimisation".
In conclusion, he observed that: "SynTEC is a talisman of these trends".
SynTEC makes production more flexible and facilitates the division of work between the component suppliers and manufacturers press shops.
* Higher output levels, lower costs - the new SynTEC crossbar technology makes it possible to make significant efficiency gains.
In press shops, inexpensive backup solutions can be implemented and production can be relocated quickly and flexibly for optimum capacity utilisation.
Optimising the transfer increases output volumes.
Installation of a new compact suction cup press with Swingarm technology reduces the unit cost factor (investment cost per produced parts) by about 20% as against a comparable classic suction cup press.
And this applies in spite of greater flexibility and higher performance.
However, the unit cost factor can also be reduced by 15% by retrofitting an existing press line with the SynTEC Swivelarm system - and this figure does not take into account the possible synergy effects to be gained from more flexible production relocations.
* For Mueller Weingarten, the conclusions to draw are obvious: "Optimising the overall process of parts production will keep the metal forming sector busy well beyond EuroBLECH", commented Hinderer.
The company was convinced that SynTEC crossbar technology could set a new standard for transporting parts within and between press shops.
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