Energy-Efficient Punching Technologies

Have you tried any of the Boxing or Wrestling Sites?

BudT: I meant metalsheet punching, as in the manufacturing process !!

Thanks anyway

So many vairables...... I'm sure that with more information about your process members will be able to assist you.

Off the top of my head and without any real iformation from you I would look at using a flywheel. A small, high eff, medium RPM motor can do wonders when connected to a heavy flywheel.

The flywheel is a great idea.

Actually, I'm not referring to a particular process at all. I'm conducting a study about energy efficiency in the manufacturing sector in Québec. Since I'm not an expert in metalsheet work, I though about getting help from people in the business...

So, some specific questions I have are:

What is the tipical drive in punching ? hydraulic, mechanical ?

Is there any new technology out there which is changing the market lately?

Thanks a lot

generally speaking there are three ways of punching a material. Mechanical (flywheel), Hyrdaulic and Air. Depending on your application as to which is better or more effeciant more information is needed.

Hello Asalomon,

The most power hungry processes are high tonnage mechanical or Hydraulic stamping operations, sich as thick material progressive stamping set ups in presses. For example 600 Tons in press pressure to run a progressive strip coil 12" wide and .250" thick through a Die with plenty of forming and piercing operations, or a large die in a 2000 T Hydraulic press stamping car hoods or doors for example.

The Pressure on piercing (metal removal) operations had a great dependance on the amount of clearance, thus affecting the tonnage and power requirements, different for every stamping tool, affecting the power consumption of the press it runs in.

When a die is designed all the pressures are usually optimized by the designer, as he calculates also the stripping forces required to remove the strip material from the pierce punches after that operation. These stripper action counter forces that by closing the die also has to be overcome by the press.

Then there is the running speed of the die, larger dies generally run slower than smaller dies, although there are exceptions.

Now to the press:

I am certain the press manufacturers such as PTC, Mueller Weingarten, and others, can assist you with this question, likely there are figures somewhere on the net regarding motor and press efficiencies.

I believe you realize there are millions of factors affecting the efficiency. It would be senseless to look at a press without a die as two different presses will behave differently with the same stamping tool, and after all what does the efficiency matter if you are not making any parts.

Dies can be altered to affect the power consumption of a press, however this can come at a high cost of quality or high cost additional preventative maintenance. It likely is wise to refrain from tool adjustments to achieve this, as the costs of a non running die for the larger presses can be very high, running into hundreds of dollars per hour, if not thousands. If the press and die runs well, don`t touch it if you are running high quality parts!

I hope this helps to point you in the right direction. Focus on the larger presses running thick materials, a large total length of cutting edges or hard hitting forming dies to get high power consumption numbers to calculate with.

Mirco.

Mirco: Thank you very much for this information. It is really helpful for me to understand that there are many different variabes one must take into account when trying to draw the graph of energy consumption on this process.

I'll check out the manufacturers you pointed out and see if they have this kind of analysis.

Hi Asalomon,

I am glad I could help, if there are more questions after your evaluation of the press manufacturers, please post them.

If you felt that it was a good answer, please don`t hesitate to use the vote button, to vote it as a good answer.

Thanks.

Mirco - Imagination beyond limits!

Other then hydraulics I have not, but I will be doing research on it. It would definitely benefit our industry.