Above: Programming of the Dyna-Cell is handled offline and requires no robot teaching at the machine.
September, 2024: With waterfalls, golf courses and farms, the town of Akron, located in western New York state, is a small, picturesque village with a population of just under 3,000. It’s home to both machine manufacturer LVD North America and fabricator Schrock Metal Products.
“We have a long-standing relationship with LVD,” says owner and President John Schrock. The two are located a bit over 2 miles from one another. “I grew up with the company in my backyard and have always worked with them when the opportunity arose,” he says.
Schrock started his company with a truck and trailer after spending 10 years in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear welding program, and the job shop has grown to provide complete fabrication services from idea conception and design to fabricating and finishing off the order sizes from 1 piece to 50,000 pieces. Schrock Metal Products’ ability to offer no minimum comes from nesting components with others, limiting the requirements for changing sheets and creating cost-effective runs.
EASY PROGRAMMING
Contributing to the shop’s cost-effectiveness is a recently installed LVD Dyna-Cell robotic system. “We were looking for a solution for forming high-volume parts,” says Schrock. “Availability of labor is always a struggle. This system performs repetitive work that is a hard position to fill.”
Prior to purchasing the Dyna-Cell, Schrock often had “operators standing and completing respective bends or we had to turn work down due to the unavailability of time to produce [parts].”
With its Dyna-Cell offering, LVD has worked to balance functionality and price to ensure an optimum cost per part. Dyna-Cell allows for automated or manual operation for small, medium and large batches, and programming of the bending cell is quick, taking 10 minutes to go from an email to generating the bending and robot program, and 10 minutes for setup and first-part generation. No robot teaching at the machine is required.
The gripper handles different part sizes and can bend three flanges without regripping.
“The ease of programming allows us to program and run smaller batch sizes,” says Schrock. “This frees up other machines and operators to concentrate on smaller-volume parts with more intricate bends. Repeat jobs with smaller batch sizes are often completed in this cell.”
THE RIGHT FIT
Because of the Dyna-Cell’s space-saving design (covering only 16 ft . by 16 ft .) and its ability to handle a wide range of part sizes, Schrock knew the bending automation would fit right into his workflow. “We were looking to add this process to enhance the flow of work through the facility. The working envelope of the cell is small enough so that it fits right in place to streamline our forming process.”
He says that his operators received training on the equipment both general operations as well as programming with LVD making time both to ensure the company understood the new system as well as after the equipment was installed to answer any follow-up questions.
In addition to the ease of programming, Schrock says the Dyna-Cell’s hydraulic clamping of tooling is a key feature, which relieves the operator of the strenuous clamping movement, providing better worker ergonomics. There’s also the option to use the press brake without the robot as a stand-alone machine, and LVD’s Easy-Form Laser option “allows for accurate forming every time.”
According to LVD, the Easy-Form Laser technology allows “the machine to compensate for material variations such as sheet thickness, strain hardening and grain direction. Scanners constantly measure the bend angle and transmit the information in real time to the CNC control unit that immediately adjusts the punch position.”
It also adapts to parts that have been cut from nested sheets, both with and against the grain or with different mechanical properties.
A full suite of software modules create a fully integrated process flow.
AUTOMATION FOR ALL
Shops with low, diverse part volumes and frequent changeovers may initially believe that they will have a hard time justifying an automated system. However, investing in automated technology can add simplicity, flexibility and accuracy to a workflow, improving productivity and increasing throughput.
Schrock says that job shops investigating automation should look at their options with a close eye toward ease of use and programming restrictions. “Once a solution is discovered, consider the labor costs and associated human errors and intervention that will be removed.”
He notes that production up time and productivity with an automated system is far greater than with an individual because the machine consistently produces billable work and can run unattended right beside another machine with an operator, as well as unattended at night.
“We walk up to the machine and newly formed parts are waiting for us, and we experience no complaints, injuries or requests for sick or vacation days with our LVD Dyna-Cell.
“I reviewed several other brands of automated forming,” Schrock continues. “The points that convinced us to partner with LVD on this project were the ease of programming without requiring a third-party integrator; the overall cost of the system, which was below that of competitors; the robust Kuka robot and the speed at which it moves; and the speed and accuracy that the Dyna-Press brake offers.”
LVD North America, 716/542-4511, http://lvdgroup.com/
Schrock Metal Products Inc., 716/542-9304, http://schrockmetalproducts.com/
