Flexible Manufacturing

High production requirements required a continuous stream of power steering engine tubes to be end formed and cleaned. For this application we created a two stage end form machine with end form presses and tooling on each side of a walking beam transfer. This allowed tubes to move through the system in the shortest possible cycle time. A tube wash and a tube dry station located in the last station of the walking beam made sure the parts where washed and ready for shipping. Flexible manufacturing was provided through quick-change tooling, which permitted different power steering tube assemblies to be processed in the same system.

Main Features

• Part loading buffer station provided contingency of parts at all times
• Ten ton custom air-over-oil presses with end form tooling
• Robust mechanical walking beam transfer to move parts through forming and wash stations
• Quick change tooling to allow different tube profiles to be run in same system
• Operator Interface with Fault Diagnostics and Maintenance Screens
• Full Sensing and Error Proofing of Process and Motions