Hydraulic Press/Space Saving Coil Feed Line-

 Key to Success

Perma-Column “Posts a Stamping Room Victory”

As their engineered building product volumes grew, Perma-Column Inc. knew their operation had to drastically change...and that meant bringing the production control inside and being able to do so fast and seamlessly.Integrated to their solution was a blanking press system that include da 400-ton Pacific Press Technologies (Mt. Carmel, IL) OBL blanking press and Spacemaster Series 3 Compact Coil Line (Sterling Heights, MI)from Coe Press Equipment.

Perma-ColumnInc. (Ossian, IN) was created from a construction company’s idea toproduce structural columns for the post-frame industry. Environmentalconcerns of burying chemically pressure treated posts or poles (oftenstill called “pole barns”) have had a tremendous effect on thematerials used in wood-framed construction of ag buildings (fromequipment sheds, animal barns, specialty horse arenas), as well as manycommercial applications such as mini-storage units, smaller retailoutlets, and manufacturing/warehouse facilities. In the past, woodposts would be treated with chemicals like arsenic to extend thebuilding’s life and reduce post rot or pest/varmint damage. And theprocess of digging post holes and pouring concrete footers around thepost on the job site has proven to be a costly process…in overall laboradditions in setting the posts into concrete at the site and inpotential damage to the job site from large concrete trucks.

So,Bob Meyer, a construction owner designed a more permanent solution forthe post-frame industry—one that is both economically sound for thepost-frame construction industry and delivers the strength anddurability of a concrete constructed foundation. Perma-Column unitsinclude a laminated wood column that is attached to a reinforcedpre-cast concrete column base with a steel U-shaped connector for the2nd piece.

Meeting Production Demands

“Sowe needed to change our “onesie/twosie” production mentality from acouple years ago,” stated Bob Meyer, Perma-Column inventor andPresident. “Our volume has grown four fold from 2003 to 2004 and weproject the volumes to be hundreds of thousands of units annuallysoon.”

Until recently, the company has been contracting theproduction work to local fabrication and welding shops…now, localizedPerma-Column “licensed producers” will do the concrete, assembly anddelivery work of the final unit.

Butthe U-shaped connector part of the assembly is key to the increasedmanufacturing demands. And they needed to find a way to produce highervolumes of this part to meet increased demands. This meant bringing thesteel fabrication in house.

These metal brackets are blankedfrom .250” thick steel (in both five and seven inch coil widths andfrom 35”-45” lengths), bent into a U-shape, and then a total of four5/8” diameter/5’ length of rebar are welded on the steel connector toprovide the connection between concrete and steel.

“Upondeciding that we were going to get into the manufacturing side of thebusiness, we had to take a look at a lot of processes to determine whatmade sense to our operation,” stated Brandon Meyer, Production Manager.“We looked at everything from mechanical to hydraulic presses, plasmaand laser cutting equipment, hand-feeding versus coil-fed lines, manualversus automated welding processes.”

And in the end, the manufacturing process had to meet a few key challenges…

Simplifiedoperation and fast startup—they felt there was a lot to be learnedabout becoming a manufacturer, so “painless and seamless” wasimportant. Lowest manpower requirements as possible—without spendingtoo much on the automation side. Minimized space requirements—eventhough they built a new building for their operations, equipment heightand stamping press line length/coil storage created a space challenge.Their end result—a stamping line that included a hydraulic blankingpress and a space-saving coil feed system.

The Hydraulic vs. Mechanical Decision

“Machinecapabilities—especially punching through thick stock as we are—was mostimportant, but other factors like overall cost, ease ofoperation/setup/controllability, and meeting our space requirementswere also important,” stated Brandon. “As we settled on a presssolution, we considered both mechanical and hydraulic power. OurPacific OBL 400 blanking press was chosen because it helped to meet allof our initial requirements.” He also added…

Reduction ofmultiple operations: “The coil fed blanking press can produce a finalblanked shape in one operation. Before, it took our vendor up to sixtouches (shear to length, hole punching of three different holes,stamping the identification information, and related material handlingrequirements) to the part to do what we now do in one. So labor costsare lower and one machine does the job versus multiple machines.”Handling the thick material stamping requirement: “After muchconsideration, we were sold that the hydraulic OBL could handle thetough breakthrough blanking shock involved in the job due to it’s rigidsteel frame construction and shock absorbing dampers. We were impressedwith the Pacific-built hydraulic system design—it just seemed extremelybeefy and calmed any fears of the “break-through shock” issue. Plus, asneeded, we liked the fact that we can use the hydraulic for a widerrange of future jobs (vs. limited operations when buying a mechanicalpress).”

Speed of operation: “When looking at mechanicalpresses working in an automated/ continuous mode, we found that theymight run too fast for our production rates.

The hydraulicpress eliminates worry on burning up clutches and brakes. Being able tocontrol the entire hydraulic press stroke (using only a half inch or soof needed travel across our progressive die) helps us to keep up withthe heavy-duty coil material press feeding…it simply is not an issue.And all of our operation’s functionality—including nitrogen returns andother features—can be easily programmed and controlled on theeasy-to-use touch screen menus.” Down the road, the company plans onautomating the part exit stacking and this will increase the outputfrom 5 seconds/stroke to as fast as 3-1/2 seconds/stroke.

Buildingheight limitations: “To achieve the same tonnage in a mechanicalstraight side press, we were looking at a much taller machine and ourbuilding couldn’t support it…and when you looked at other types ofprocesses such as plasma or laser tables and the storage space formaterial, it would eat up too much of our usable floor space.” MachineCost: “Based on our volumes and type of part, it was easy to see thatpress working vs. laser or plasma cutting was the way to go. After wewere confident that hydraulic operations could handle the job, we werepleasantly surprised that it was also more economical to go thehydraulic route. Fast and simple startup: “Pacific really held our handalong the way…from selling us on the benefits of hydraulics throughinitial training, setup and operation. They even spent extra time tohelp set up custom programming for our part and optimizing featureslike oil heaters and others.” Their Pacific 400-ton OBL offers a 78” x36” bed bolster, 18” stroke and 25-3/4” open height, two pressing andthree rapid advance/return speed settings (rapid advance of 334 ipm –fast press of 160 ipm at 200 tons), an adjustable 6-point square typegibbing system for accurate slide alignment, and an Allen Bradley SLC500/PanelView 600 Control/Operator Interface System. Many otherstandard, auxiliary and optional features were also included in thepress system.

Loopless Feeding of Thick Coil Stock

Butthe press solution was only half the battle. Determining the best coilhandling/feed system to support automated feeding and “hands free”loading of this thicker, “tougher to work with” material needed to beaddressed. And line length limitations were also an issue.

“Whilefeeding coil stock made economic and production sense, handling thematerial was a little intimidating,” added Brandon. “Our feed systemlength is measured at 16’ and a conventional line would have requiredmore than 30’…not to mention the space and cost required for a loopingpit. (It probably would have cost an additional $15,000-25,000 toinstall a pit and would have produced problems for future plant layoutchanges, according to Brandon.)

“So the SpaceMaster was ano-brainer for us…no loop pit, buying one complete unit versus severalcomponents, and suited to handle the precision feeding and hand’s freeloading of the coil.” Their SpaceMaster Series 3 allows them to address:

Limitedline length: “The savings of space—in my estimate, half of what aconventional line would require—allows us to keep our productionequipment in the middle section of our building and compact to be nearthe automated welding and bending equipment. Plus raw material storageand room for pallets of finished blanks and production racks ofcompleted assemblies. We really have the room and a “pitless”configuration that suits our operation.” Equipment built to processthick coil: “The coil reel and traveling coil cars are built to handlethicker gauge coils. The straightener flattens material to thetolerances our automated welding operations need…and that’s not an easyjob when you consider factors like clock spring and coil set found inmaterial this thick. And the servo feed gives us fast and precise pressfeeding of the long stamped part.” Hands free loading: “This systemtakes much of the danger out of handling the coil stock. Its overallrobust design, automated hold down arm, debender arm and coil guidesallows us to confidently get the material fed into the system. We caneasily changeover to a new coil in 10 minutes and that keeps usproductive.”
Their SpaceMaster Series 3 compact coil lineprovides three functions of unwinding, straightening, and feeding in asingle compact machine base. A 60’ per minute production speed can berealized. It delivers up to .250” x 10” wide capacity (or .156” x 16”wide), can handle 11,000# coil weights, and has seven straightenerrolls for optimized straightening. A closed loop Yaskawa digital servois used to drive the precision feeder-straightener and an AC variablespeed inverter duty drive provides continuous payoff of the uncoiler. AServoMaster MMI provides the operator with easy set up, job storage,and machine control.