February 2023- Fabricators can source entire equipment line along with automation, integration and project management from one press builder

     Stamtec can integrate a cut-to-length that features cradle uncoiler, conveyors, OCP-80 press, 2-axis robotic stacker and destacker and other ancillary equipment.

Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein said, “Nothing happens until something moves.” Stamtec has been making things happen for more than 70 years.

“We’ve been building presses for more than seven decades through our parent company and 40 years here in the U.S.,” says Stamtec Inc. North American Sales Manager Lee Ellard. “Our 72,000-sq.- ft . Nashville facility has one of the country’s largest in-stock inventories of mechanical and servo presses [from 35 to 600 tons] and parts. We also make virtually every mechanical component of the press in our own factories.”

In addition to mechanical, servo and forging presses, Stamtec’s core capabilities have long included feedlines, quick die change systems and transfer system technology as standard fare. The ability to adapt to recent market changes and anticipate customer needs helps the company maintain momentum. Ellard says servo motor drive presses have become a driving force in the industry over the last several years. “They are ideal for applications that require variable slide velocity at multiple points in the stroke profile. We can design and engineer a custom servo press to a customer’s specifications from an 80-ton C-Frame to a 3,300-ton straight-side [machine].”

     Stamtec can build and integrate equipment such as this cradle uncoiler with hydraulic coil centering.

INTEGRATION

Cobot press tending is another area of focus for the press builder. “We have had customers tell us, ‘I’d buy two or three presses from you right now, but I don’t have operators to run them,’” says Kyle Brazier, Stamtec regional manager and sales engineer. “That prompted us to look at collaborative robotic automation with Universal Robots. We started with pairing easy-to-program cobots with single- point gap-frame presses since they are typically more suited for hand-fed parts.”

Stamtec is also a turnkey systems integrator. “Adopting cobot press tending technology “allowed us to pivot in the face of labor shortages and supply chain problems to help customers bridge the deficit of operators,” Brazier continues. As reshoring and onshoring activity rises, more U.S. companies are “trying to expand their operations or establish brick-and-mortar facilities. Manufacturing is scaling up so quickly that it’s creating a shortage of equipment and people.”

With customer support and service at a premium, Stamtec has positioned itself as a single source for line components from the press, feedline, transfer system, lubrication and scrap removal equipment to cobots, machine foundations, rigging and transportation.

“Most companies no longer have the engineering and project management support they need in house,” says Ellard. “We have established dedicated project managers who are ready to step in and take charge of a customer’s project. And because we supply all of the components to a line, the customer has to issue only one purchase order.

These services proved attractive to an automated welding equipment builder with an unusual request. The company needed a cut-to-length line anchored by a stamping press to produce the parts dictated by its automated welding process. The welding operation required precision-cut material with burr-free edges, features a standard shear couldn’t provide.

The company bought Stamtec’s single- point gap-frame 88-ton press, the OCP-80, that could accommodate a shear die with a cradle feed line, straightener and edge conditioners engineered to meet their strict material demands. Sheared blanks are sequenced by a Stamtec conveyor stacking system and timed so that the line can determine if blanks should be stacked or passed through to the next step in the process.

“The operator uses a coil of material every 30 minutes,” says Brazier. “With the fast-load coil storage system, it takes about five minutes to change a coil. End-of-line output must be maintained at 10 blanks per minute. That means the stacking system must accumulate 50 blanks per coil to keep the line running while the coil is changed.”

     Stamtec is able to integrate straighteners with edge conditioners with a press and other equipment it produces.

Blanks then move to a roll former, which takes the rectangular blanks and rolls them into circles which are welded to create rings.

The company, which produces wheels for vehicles, trailers and trucks, previously installed another line and chose to build the front end themselves, sourcing a press from another OEM. And since the company didn’t have an in house project manager, it hired a third-party.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

“The experience proved unsatisfactory,” says Brazier. “The press builder didn’t want to integrate its machine with the rest of the line’s equipment. Interestingly, the competition we had wasn’t just from other press builders. It was feeding equipment manufacturers as well. We won the business because of our ability to produce and integrate our own equipment as well as assign a skilled project manager to oversee the job.”

      Stamtec combines a blank stack cart with a 2-axis vacuum robotic stacker and destacker.

A third-party project management company still has to communicate with the equipment builders, he says. “In this case, we are the equipment manufacturer and we have the technical know-how to manage the line right down to the millimeters, number of cables, press weight and specifications, as well as integrate all handshaking signals. As a result, we have a very capable, technically inclined engineering company that is still buying equipment from us because they recognize that this is outside their realm of expertise.”

With more than 60,000 presses in the field, Stamtec continuously fine-tunes its technology and processes. For example, Stamtec presses are built to tolerances 1.5 to two times higher than JIS First Class standards. Major stress components are engineered to 1.6 times capacity. Standard bed/slide deflection is 0.0015 in. per ft ., exceeding the JIS First Class standard of 0.0020 in. Bed/slide deflection can be customized to meet even tighter tolerances.

Stamtec produces its drive trains and gears in its own factories to control quality and provide quick lead times. The ability to provide ancillary equipment such as the cradle uncoiler and smart conveyance 3-axis stacking system also sets the stamping press manufacturer apart.

“We’re not the biggest in the industry,” Brazier says, “but customers feel they have a partner when they work with us.”

Stamtec Inc., 931/393-5050, http://stamtec.com/