AIDA's "High Speed Transfer Press Line for Forming High-Strength Materials" Awarded the "2019 Ten Greatest Innovations Prize" by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun

This is to announce that AIDA's "High Speed Transfer Press Line for Forming High-Strength Materials" is a recipient of the "2019 Ten Greatest Innovations Prize (for Manufacturing)" (see Note 1) awarded annually for 62 years by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun (Japan Business & Technology Daily News).

[Product Overview]

The press line consists of two mechanical presses--an 800-ton capacity 2-point SMX-S2-8000(2) and a 1500-ton capacity 2-point TMX-S2-15000(2) transfer press--and material is supplied to the line and transferred between the presses using AIDA's independently developed robots. The mechanical presses are synchronized to run in Continuous mode while keeping material conveyance time loss to the bare minimum, thereby enabling the high-precision and high-productivity forming of high-strength materials.

[Development Background]

When a single conventional transfer press is used to form products, a large forming load is applied at the 1st Stage, and this not only adversely affects the forming accuracy in subsequent stages and the life of the dies, it also requires a great deal of time to adjust the dies, etc. And these adverse effects are even more pronounced when forming hard and high-strength materials.

By performing the Stage 1 forming of a product on a separate press, it eliminates slide tipping issues at all the forming stages. Moreover, because two presses are utilized, the following technologies are being used to reduce conveyance times as much as possible.

• Direct conveyance of material from the destacker to the No. 1 Press via an independent 4-axis robot.

Also, the independent 'Visual Centering System' corrects the positioning of the material while it is being conveyed.

• Motion control that is matched to the shape of the dies to achieve independent yet synchronized operation of the mechanical presses. (Motion settings can even be made offline.)

[Development Successes]

① Stable product forming accuracy

② Easier die adjustments, reduced die wear, and improved durability of the press itself.

③ Enables a line takt time of 20 min-1, which rivals the productivity of a single transfer press or a servo tandem line.

④ 30% boost in the productivity of automotive parts formed from hard high-strength materials.

⑤ Because it is a mechanical press line, the initial investment is lower than a servo press line.

Aside from being recognized for achieving stable forming accuracy and significantly higher productivity, this line also received high praise as 'a concept that separates the forming processes of high-strength materials, thereby presenting a new direction for the near future,' and which 'exhibits great marketing potential because it neatly solves many die-related issues.'