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A big contract with high customer expectations focuses manufacturer
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A big contract with high customer expectations focuses manufacturer A high-value contract for an Italian PM component manufacturer from a major automotive customer, and its requirements for quality and delivery performance, meant a major investment in production technology...
T
he terminology tells the story. Complex, multilevel and high density are terms that are becoming more and more familiar in everyday discussion as the PM parts making industry draws closer to emulating the mechanical performance of wrought steel. And they were terms very much at the forefront of management thinking at Italy’s Sinteris srl, established more than 40 years ago near Bologna, when they considered a major new contract from a Japanese customer. It was for the production of a family of five complex, multi-level and high density PM parts. They decided to turn to German press builder Lauffer Pressen, based near Stuttgart, to discuss possibilities. The end result has been that a fully automated 63-ton hydraulic compacting press has been in operation since the end of last year. Another was installed in the autumn and a third is about to follow. Piero Berti, managing director of Sinteris said: “Our philosophy is to have the maximum amount of automation, because only with this can we guarantee the increased standards for productivity and process safety. The Lauffer unit made it possible to realise this philosophy in an impressive way. It runs for half a shift until the trolley with the full sinter plates needs to be exchanged, and this allows us to reduce our labour cost. In addition, our scrap material rate has reached the lowest record ever seen.” The VPM 63 SC is a fully hydraulic, closed loop controlled press in a multi-level design. The SC in its name stands for Synchronous Compaction, which means that no mechanical stops are used (see box). Lauffer first introduced this compaction principle for multi-level parts in 1992 and was the first press builder offering a concept without mechanical stops. Mr. Alessandro Salemi, technical manager of Sinteris, said: “We decided in favour of Lauffer because their press concept is far ahead in terms of compaction technology.” And he proudly adds: “Even though part geometry, part density and part tolerances are extremely demanding, we have considerably improved
0026-0657/08 ©2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Figure 1. Lauffer’s closed loop controlled powder compacting press VPM 63 SC with linear robot automation system RAG 2.
Figure 2. An aerial view of Lauffer Pressen’s plant in Horb am Neckar, Germany.
January 2008 MPR
23
What is synchronous compaction? THE compression of multi-level parts through synchronous compaction offers a wide range of possibilities compared to the compaction with mechanical stops. The most important advantages are: • The complete pressing cycle is closed loop controlled, ie pressing is not dependant on friction; • No adjustments of speeds or counter-pressure are necessary: the compaction movements are synchronised by the controller (at any stage of the compaction phase); • All axes are force-monitored and thus for each punch a protection (maximum) force can be programmed; • Compaction movement can be realised in both directions; • Withdrawal/ejection movement can be realised in both directions; • Partial Top Pressing (POP ‘Partielle Oberpressung’) for each single level; • No mechanical adjustments at all (eg when running in a tooling or reloading a tooling). the tooling’s lifetime, the density distribution and the process capability.” Lauffer’s Albert Rundel commented: “A ‘nice-tohave’ feature is the on-floor set-up of the VPM 63 SC. Equipped with eight closedloop controlled axes it is surprising that it does not need a pit. However, the important points lie within its adapter technology and hydraulics. “Because the cylinders are installed in the press and Figure 3. Linear Robot System RAG2 with sinter plate trolley. not in the adapter, thermal
Figure 4. Automatic adjustment of the filling height is just one of the sophisticated press features that has allowed Sinteris to address both the economics and techniques of powder manufacturing in a dynamic fashion, with good results for company and customer.
24
MPR January 2008
expansion of the adapter is avoided. This offers the advantage of a stable process. It also allows for a compact adapter design with rigid and precise guidance of the adapter plates. This precision has a positive influence on the tooling’s lifetime and the position tolerances of the parts.” The hydraulic concept is based on capacity-controlled pumps and accumulator support, through which higher speeds can be achieved while power and energy consumption is reduced considerably.
Automation As compared to hardmetal production, where automation systems with stacking of parts on sinter plates have been in use for many years, in mainstream PM parts production there has not been available a comparable unit so far. Based on e experience of hard metal production, Lauffer and their German automation partner Roboworker have developed an automation system adapted to the needs of PM component production. As a turn key solution the unit installed at Sinteris is thought to be the first completely automated press with sintering tray handling in PM parts production. The automation package consists of a linear robot with three axes. For the linear robot a standard gripper program is available being able to perform additional pneumatic functions such as rotating, tilting and turning. These grippers can either be interchanged manually or automatically by the robot, having the advantage of considerably shorter tool change-over times. The linear robot takes the parts out of the die, moves them through a blow-off device for cleaning and afterwards puts them on a scale for weighing. The part weight is used for an automated statistical process control (SPC) by means of the so called “automatic filling height adjustment” (see chart). After the weighing operation, the linear robot stacks the part on the sintering tray. The loaded sintering trays are automatically transferred and stacked into trolleys which can be used as a buffer storage area, smoothing workflow. This operation is carried out by a newly developed stacker system. The stacker system is designed in such a way that the loaded sintering trays can also be transferred to the furnace directly.
metal-powder.net
A big contract with high customer expectations focuses manufacturer A high-value contract for an Italian PM component manufacturer from a major automotive customer, and its requirements for quality and delivery performance, meant a major investment in production technology...
T
he terminology tells the story. Complex, multilevel and high density are terms that are becoming more and more familiar in everyday discussion as the PM parts making industry draws closer to emulating the mechanical performance of wrought steel. And they were terms very much at the forefront of management thinking at Italy’s Sinteris srl, established more than 40 years ago near Bologna, when they considered a major new contract from a Japanese customer. It was for the production of a family of five complex, multi-level and high density PM parts. They decided to turn to German press builder Lauffer Pressen, based near Stuttgart, to discuss possibilities. The end result has been that a fully automated 63-ton hydraulic compacting press has been in operation since the end of last year. Another was installed in the autumn and a third is about to follow. Piero Berti, managing director of Sinteris said: “Our philosophy is to have the maximum amount of automation, because only with this can we guarantee the increased standards for productivity and process safety. The Lauffer unit made it possible to realise this philosophy in an impressive way. It runs for half a shift until the trolley with the full sinter plates needs to be exchanged, and this allows us to reduce our labour cost. In addition, our scrap material rate has reached the lowest record ever seen.” The VPM 63 SC is a fully hydraulic, closed loop controlled press in a multi-level design. The SC in its name stands for Synchronous Compaction, which means that no mechanical stops are used (see box). Lauffer first introduced this compaction principle for multi-level parts in 1992 and was the first press builder offering a concept without mechanical stops. Mr. Alessandro Salemi, technical manager of Sinteris, said: “We decided in favour of Lauffer because their press concept is far ahead in terms of compaction technology.” And he proudly adds: “Even though part geometry, part density and part tolerances are extremely demanding, we have considerably improved
0026-0657/08 ©2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Figure 1. Lauffer’s closed loop controlled powder compacting press VPM 63 SC with linear robot automation system RAG 2.
Figure 2. An aerial view of Lauffer Pressen’s plant in Horb am Neckar, Germany.
January 2008 MPR
23
What is synchronous compaction? THE compression of multi-level parts through synchronous compaction offers a wide range of possibilities compared to the compaction with mechanical stops. The most important advantages are: • The complete pressing cycle is closed loop controlled, ie pressing is not dependant on friction; • No adjustments of speeds or counter-pressure are necessary: the compaction movements are synchronised by the controller (at any stage of the compaction phase); • All axes are force-monitored and thus for each punch a protection (maximum) force can be programmed; • Compaction movement can be realised in both directions; • Withdrawal/ejection movement can be realised in both directions; • Partial Top Pressing (POP ‘Partielle Oberpressung’) for each single level; • No mechanical adjustments at all (eg when running in a tooling or reloading a tooling). the tooling’s lifetime, the density distribution and the process capability.” Lauffer’s Albert Rundel commented: “A ‘nice-tohave’ feature is the on-floor set-up of the VPM 63 SC. Equipped with eight closedloop controlled axes it is surprising that it does not need a pit. However, the important points lie within its adapter technology and hydraulics. “Because the cylinders are installed in the press and Figure 3. Linear Robot System RAG2 with sinter plate trolley. not in the adapter, thermal
Figure 4. Automatic adjustment of the filling height is just one of the sophisticated press features that has allowed Sinteris to address both the economics and techniques of powder manufacturing in a dynamic fashion, with good results for company and customer.
24
MPR January 2008
expansion of the adapter is avoided. This offers the advantage of a stable process. It also allows for a compact adapter design with rigid and precise guidance of the adapter plates. This precision has a positive influence on the tooling’s lifetime and the position tolerances of the parts.” The hydraulic concept is based on capacity-controlled pumps and accumulator support, through which higher speeds can be achieved while power and energy consumption is reduced considerably.
Automation As compared to hardmetal production, where automation systems with stacking of parts on sinter plates have been in use for many years, in mainstream PM parts production there has not been available a comparable unit so far. Based on e experience of hard metal production, Lauffer and their German automation partner Roboworker have developed an automation system adapted to the needs of PM component production. As a turn key solution the unit installed at Sinteris is thought to be the first completely automated press with sintering tray handling in PM parts production. The automation package consists of a linear robot with three axes. For the linear robot a standard gripper program is available being able to perform additional pneumatic functions such as rotating, tilting and turning. These grippers can either be interchanged manually or automatically by the robot, having the advantage of considerably shorter tool change-over times. The linear robot takes the parts out of the die, moves them through a blow-off device for cleaning and afterwards puts them on a scale for weighing. The part weight is used for an automated statistical process control (SPC) by means of the so called “automatic filling height adjustment” (see chart). After the weighing operation, the linear robot stacks the part on the sintering tray. The loaded sintering trays are automatically transferred and stacked into trolleys which can be used as a buffer storage area, smoothing workflow. This operation is carried out by a newly developed stacker system. The stacker system is designed in such a way that the loaded sintering trays can also be transferred to the furnace directly.
metal-powder.net