Crimping Presses

Download PDF   What Our Customers Say

Challenge:

Universal Metal Products Inc., a fabricated metal components manufacturer, was challenged to improve the repeatability and throughput of a metal-forming crimping press process that produces attachment hardware for the Automotive and Appliance Industries. In response, they launched a continuous improvement project to upgrade an existing crimping press that would require a new press actuator, controls and modularity that could handle a variety of part types and sizes.

Due to the forces required to form their parts (> 10,000 Lbs), the manufacturer investigated using a traditional hydraulic crimp press system approach with an HPU, cylinder and servo valves to provide the precision control needed. They determined that the cost of these components along with the engineering, assembly and integration time was cost prohibitive. In addition, the large footprint of the hydraulic power unit interfered with the new lean manufacturing layout and consumed valuable floor space.

Solution:

A Kyntronics SMART Electro-Hydraulic Actuator (SHA) rated for up to 20,000 Lbf (89kN) with 4-inch (102 mm) stroke was selected to cover the wide force and position range needed to crimp press the variety of product range.

The SHA supplied was an all-in-one actuator in a parallel configuration with foot mounting, drive cabinet and touch screen HMI. The pre-programmed HMI panel allowed the operator to quickly change position settings, speed and other parameters based on part and tooling requirements.

Due to the simplicity of the factory-tuned, drop-in ready actuation system, plant personnel were able to quickly and efficiently integrate the SHA into the existing crimping press machine frame and index table controls.

The servo-based position control provided in the SHA achieved repeatable process quality for the wire forming and crimping process that exceeded expectations. The programmable HMI included in the SHA allowed the customer to transform a once dedicated single-part machine into a flexible piece of production equipment that can easily adapt to many current and future product lines.

Results:

Feedback from the customer’s Project Engineer summarized how the Kyntronics SHA benefitted their project… “Working with Kyntronics was a great experience. This type of product is new to our company and they were very helpful and patient with any questions we had. We decided to install the optional HMI unit with the actuator making set up of our tooling painless. The parts we are forming among 6 tooling stations are very consistent hit after hit. The precision is greater than any other forming method we have used. We are overall very pleased with the actuators design and performance".