by: Jerry Bupp

Director of Sales and Marketing

National Machinery LLC

161 Greenfield Street

Tiffin , Ohio 44883

jbupp@nationalmachinery.com

Improving the ability to cold form complex and difficult parts leads to expanded production capabilities and profitability.

Staying ahead of the competition is the key to business success. In the cold forming industry this translates into the ability to remove secondary operations and make parts more efficiently. National Machinery is dedicated to making this possible. An example is the new “Blank Rotator” tooling solution. The Blank Rotator is a self-contained unit that rotates a blank from a horizontal to a vertical orientation in the FORMAX® Plus machine (see Figure 1). This mechanism allows for additional forming operations at 90 degrees to the die axis. The FORMAX Plus machine is required because of it’s unique Pick-Move-Place (PMP) transfer with a built in lifting motion. The actual rotation of the part in the Blank Rotator utilizes one die station for vertical rotation.

The Blank Rotator is an engineered to order device designed for a particular product. The Blank Rotator simply fits in an existing die bore in the FORMAX Plus dieblock. The mechanism can be placed in any die station according the tooling sequence required. The blank rotation is synchronized with the kickout motion of the FORMAX Plus machine to provide part control and stability, even at high production rates. Also, the part can be rotated either up or down according the sequence requirements.

M6 Eyebolt
The M6 Eyebolt (Figure 2) is a sample part made on the FXP35S at the recent IFFI 2003 Show. Demonstrations were done with the machine producing parts at 250 parts per minute. The M6 part sequence in the die area of the FXP35S is shown in (Figure 3), and the M6 eyebolt sequence of operations is shown in (Figure 4).

How does it work?
Simple, yet very effective is the basic description. The blank rotator works with the existing FORMAX Plus machine to accomplish vertical part orientation. The Blank Rotator Sequence of Operations: Preform blank is transferred in front of the Blank Rotator in standard horizontal orientation. Punch pushes the blank through the transfer fingers and into the Blank Rotator fingers. Punch retreats from the die area with the heading slide.

Transfer Control
The PMP transfer fingers in (Figure 5) are shown holding two blanks with different orientations. The horizontal blank is prepared for delivery to the Blank Rotator, while the vertical blank is ready for transfer to the next forming die. The PMP transfer is required to lift the blank out of the Blank Rotator fingers and deliver it to the next station. The “effective part length” of a blank after rotation is the diameter of the preform.

The characteristics of the Formax Plus short-stroke machine makes it the ideal candidate for transferring and controlling these effectively short blanks. Part control can be accomplished on FORMAX Plus medium and long-stroke models with customized blank control techniques and machine modifications. The Blank Rotator also uses a special die retainer method. The Blank Rotator has product specific tooling component as shown in (Figure 6). The block finger, blade finger, spacer, and end stop all change with varying blank diameter and/or length. The end stop determines the vertical location of the blank after rotation.

Blank Rotator Advantage
As seen with the M6 Eyebolt, one advantage of the Blank Rotator is the ability to pierce a cross-hole. Additional forming steps made possible include; flattening, coining, or trimming. In addition the Blank Rotator employs the FORMAX concept of off-line setup by utilizing an auxiliary set up fixture. This allows the mechanism to be set up and adjusted outside of the machine. Now even more difficult parts are possible on FORMAX Plus. These parts can help expand production capabilities and profitability. The Blank Rotator is another example of National working to get the best products out into the cold forming marketplace. For details, contact the author or Circle 210.