17.06.2008

Powerful and economical: Nova automatic blanking unit with servo drive

With its Nova range of standard presses, Beutler Nova – a subsidiary of the Schuler Group – can offer customers the possibility to individually optimize their equipment according to needs. By means of a modular construction system, customers can add units for part feeding, transfer and scrap removal, as well as other peripheral devices. Beutler Nova can call upon the high-performance products and solutions of its Swiss Quality partners.

Nova double-rod automatic blanking units are supplied with transverse shafts and the company’s own, operator-friendly CCS control system. The Nova range boasts excellent value for money. With press forces of 125 to 500 metric tons and bolster widths of 1,400 to 3,000 millimeters, Nova automatic presses cover a wide range of metalforming needs.

In addition to the standard sine drive, Beutler Nova also supplies its Nova automatic blanking units with an electrically modified servo drive. Beutler Nova has thus responded to customer requests for a variable drive concept. Depending on the application, the operator can select between a sine-wave ram movement cycle, even up to high stroke rates, and a modified ram profile. “At the same time, there are eight specified speed profiles available to optimize the production process,” explains Beni Schenker, Technical Director of Beutler Nova. Practical tests have shown that productivity is up to 30 percent higher than with the sine drive – with no restrictions on speed in the lower working range. The braking energy is returned to the power system via the servo controller, which significantly reduces operating costs.

Freely adjustable contact and blanking speeds enable particularly complex drawing and forming work. This opens up new application fields for customers. The long sliding gibs of the slide, for example, are specifically designed for processing higher strength steel and are ideally suited to dealing with off-centre forces and impact loads. The two counter-rotating transverse shafts cancel out their lateral rotation forces without any additional masses and are driven by two transverse shafts with helical gears, which run quietly in an enclosed oil space. Rapid changeover to a new die is performed automatically. Stroke length, ram position, tool protection and cam settings are loaded from the data memory and automatically set correctly.

To protect against unscheduled machine downtime and expensive repairs, the main bearing points of the eccentric shafts and the rods are monitored by temperature sensors. A freely adjustable hydraulic overload protection feature offers additional protection for die and machine.

The CCS control system features a user-friendly touch screen monitor on which all parameters can be visualized and entered. The high-speed technology module takes care of all time-critical tasks and includes interfaces for PLC connections.

In order to utilize the performance of the automatic servo presses, Beutler Nova uses a Sander high-performance transfer system. “This means we can achieve speeds as high as 100 strokes per minute whilst maintaining optimum process reliability,” says Beni Schenker. These speeds are made possible by an integrated stroke rate optimization program, which can perform entire motion simulations for transfer dies on 2D or 3D CAD systems. This also enables the complete production of stampings with complicated geometries.

“This provides our customers with a high-performance and highly economical press concept,” summarizes Beni Schenker. The particular product highlight is that the modular drive concept can also be retrofitted to existing blanking units.