More from the Floor at FABTECH®

What tradeshow would be compete without a race car? This chartreuse beauty graced the FABTECH show floor courtesy of green lubricant manufacturer Metalloid, which showcased its full line of biobased lubricants. Metalloid President Fred Edwards (right) proudly sponsors his sporty driver Ryan Barth.

You’re in luck! Here are a few sightings from FABTECH to tide you over until next year’s show in Chicago -- watch the video below.

Seyi, which introduced its servo press at last year’s FABTECH, demonstrated its SD1-88 again, showing what they called its vibration mode, allowing the press to dwell and pulsate. The action enables extruding capabilities.

Seyi’s Randy Kish explained: “The direct drive provides all the linkages stampers need to compensate for energy loss. The direct drive enables you to get the most out of the motor, to get the most control of speed, over the dwell and the distance, and truly results in better performance, better longevity of the press, and the precision of the parts.

Nidec Minster has entered the servo press arena with its own offering—a Kyori line, 40-ton, high-speed servo press. The variable stroke range is from 16 mm to 50 mm stroke. Press speeds can go up to 1,000 SPM. Also a pinnacle gripper feed, also made by Kyori; ranges up to 800 tons.

Nidec Minster’s Steve Richardson wouldn’t let a little thing like a broken clavicle prevent him from exhibiting at FABTECH. Sporting a sleek black sling, Richardson called it a “true servo,” adding that he thinks it is a good blend of engineering of Kyori expertise and Minster expertise.

Richardson said customers’ favorite aspects of the servo press is that it applies full tonnage instantly, throughout the stroke, and that it can reverse tonnage anywhere in the stroke. He added that although the servo press showcased at FABTECH is low-tonnage, Minster specializes in larger presses.

Andreas Kinzyk and Rudi Schubert of Schuler emphasized the importance of sizing a press properly to meet today’s advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) automotive applications and warned that even a 600-ton press can fall short of being adequate in many applications. “Some stamping companies may have just bought a 200- to 400-ton press but find that they need a 2,500-ton press.”

New materials are driving stampers to make choices. “Should we stay with what we know about the family of products we’ve been producing or with the process that we’re familiar with?”

Kinzyk predicts that that consumers’ preferences in automobiles may migrate to products in other industry segments, such as home appliances. “They may want to have the same hinges for kitchen cabinets that they see on cars, for example.”

Greenerd’s Tom LaVoie said the company has recently seen a high interest in straightening presses both shaft work and plate work, indicating the shaft and getting rid of any runoff in the shaft. “Really more of a manual type operation. We’re able to control the depth to =/- 0.001-in. so if the shaft needs just a little more movement to get it straight, Greenerd’s presses can dial into that depth and know that you can always reach that same depth.”

Eriez Hydroflow introduced its deep-bed gravity filter, a new addition as a result of the company’s acquisition of Centri-Force, which is now part of the product line. The filtration system allows a deeper bed of liquid to provide more pressure for better penetration than a flat gravity bed. It is coupled with a magnetic separator to take some of the burden off the paper filter.

Nidec Minster’s Steve Richardson wouldn’t let a little thing like a broken clavicle prevent him from exhibiting at FABTECH.

The company also introduced its HP-20 Centrifuge for liquid-solid separation. It runs at 3,600 RPM for removing solvents from liquid. It is packaged with pumps and tanks and a polishing cartridge filter to be a complete plug-and-play liquid filtration system.

Have questions about how to run the systems? No problem. Eriez’ Orange University metal working demo vehicle—complete with full internet capabilities—will come to you, Andy Kloecker explained. “It’s a 32-foot Peterbilt chassis with a nice big training area equipped with our material handling equipment and also our fluid recycling and fluid filtration lines. We have a lot of demo equipment on board that can be used at our customer’s location for training purposes as well as to test on their own applications in the plant. This will be a great tool to help customers figure out what they need to run more efficiently.”

Toledo Integrated Systems, a designer, manufacturer, and producer of press automation controls, tonnage monitoring and press control integration, showcased its Maximizer integrated tonnage monitor for what it calls TPC—Total Press Control—at FABTECH. The monitor is part of the company’s all-in-one systems for stamping presses that integrate die protection, programmable limit switches, brake monitoring, and job storage into an encoder-based package.

The Maximizer system is unique in that it offers not only press control, but also feed line integration for a complete, total integrated system, said Toledo Integrated Systems Product Manager John Eby.

Coe Press Equipment introduced its new straightener engineered specifically for AHSS. “COE developed the heavy-duty straightener because of the auto industry’s demand for higher yield materials than it ran in the past, all based on the need to build lighter cars for high fuel efficiency,” Tom Brocke explained. “The older straighteners were not able to yield the high-strength materials. This unit has the strength, the wall penetration, and the horsepower that the old straighteners did not.”

If you don’t miss the expo, you surely miss the sights and tastes of Atlanta. Back in four years!.

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