Finally there is a ray of hope - after day in, day out for months only one topic dominated our thinking. The pandemic not only dominates our private lives, we have also been fooled by the prevailing uncertainty in our business environment. At the latest now, with yesterday's news and the prospect of a vaccine, it is time to look ahead, define goals and prepare the stamping plants & forming machines for the post-COVID era.
The stroke rate of progressive and transfer presses can be significantly increased by the optimal adjustment of the process parameters. The success of such a process optimization is usually expressed by the increase in stroke rate.
But how much additional output must be achieved so that the costs of this effort can be economically justified?
Great efforts are made to increase the production quantity of forming machines. Those responsible diligently create value stream analyzes, constantly optimize setting values, invest in modern production equipment and much more in order to increase output.
A concrete and outright structured analysis of the process bottleneck helps to address the causes with efficient means and leads to a sustainable improvement.
Maximum stroke rates on presses are an obvious must in times of enormous demand, no question.
As soon as the demand for formed parts drops, it is more important to trim the production to maximum efficiency and thus to optimum stroke rates. Specifically, this means re-adjusting the press and 3-axis transfer settings not only in regard of the absolute number of strokes, but especially in terms of the reduction of maintenance and the energy consumption per manufactured part.