What Is An Automation Metal Stamping Line?

The automatic metal stamping production line mainly includes: progressive die stamping, multi-station stamping, and tandem stamping. Due to their respective characteristics, they are used to produce different automotive sheet metal parts, with their unique advantages in automotive automation. The efficient production system plays a huge role.

Here we will compare and analyze the characteristics of the three automated stamping production lines, and explain the selection of the production line according to its characteristics. Therefore, it is convenient for each business to select automatic production lines according to the characteristics of its own parts.

With the rapid development of the automobile industry, the metal stamping industries have also flourished. In order to adapt to the ever-increasing output, various automated production lines have emerged, and with the characteristics of the products, the different production methods are given. Companies select different production methods according to the characteristics of its own products. The production lines are classified into: progressive die stamping, multi-station stamping, tandem stamping, and a brief analysis of the characteristics and selection methods of each production line.

Selection factors for stamping automated production lines:

Generally consider the following factors to select the type of press lines:

(1) Product material: including material type, formability, hardness, etc., to measure the choice of coil or sheet forming.

(2) Material thickness: Consider the thickness and materials together to select the tonnage of the press machine and the feeding machines.

(3) Monthly production requirements: assess production capacity for the selection of automatic line types.

(4) The volume and shape of the stamping product: Through the modeling complexity and product quality requirements, the mold design method and the corresponding stamping automation production method are comprehensively considered.

Common stamping automation production line types:

Progressive die stamping production line

(1) Overview: The progressive die automatic stamping production line is a production line that uses progressive die stamping. It is generally composed of decoiler, straightener, feeder, punching machine, progressive die, and automatic cutting line to realize decoiling, straightening, feeding, oiling, stamping, blanking and collecting of the coil material.

The important part is progressive die, which consists of multiple stations, and some can be as many as more than 20 stations. Each station is sequentially connected in order to complete different processing contents, such as punching, trimming and turning, edge, shaping, blanking process, etc. A series of different processing are completed in one stroke of the press. After the completion of one stroke, the feeder moves the strip in the forward direction according to a fixed step, so that multiple processes can be completed simultaneously in one punching, as shown in Fig. 1.

(2) Features: The progressive production line is highly efficient, and can usually reach up to 30 s.p.m.

A. High productivity. The progressive die is a multi-tasking die, which can include various processes such as punching, bending, and drawing in a pair of molds, and has high productivity. The progressive die placement process is shown in Figure 2.

B. The line is easy to automate. Automated operation can be realized from loading, decoiling, straightening, feeding, stamping and blanking, thereby reducing labor costs, improving production efficiency, and preventing abnormalities caused by inconsistencies in manual operations.

C. Can be produced using high speed presses. Depending on the product features, high speed presses can be considered for higher productivity.

D. Safe operation. The progressive press equipment has safety gates that separate the work area from the personnel operation area to form a relatively closed work area, providing safety for high-speed production.

E. Saves production space. Just one press machine is needed in the production line to complete the production of a metal product. It has a small footprint and also simplifies the transportation state detection of the bottom and semi-finished products, and has high safety.

F. Material utilization is not high. In order to ensure the continuity of the material and the requirements, in order to ensure the stability of the feeding, it is generally necessary to ensure the even distribution of the contents of the process state, sometimes at the expense of wasting parts of the material, so that high material utilization cannot be achieved.

Multi-station stamping automation production line

(1) Overview: A multi-tonnage press table is equipped with multiple (usually 4~5 pairs of molds) independent working position mold production lines, using the unloading hand or the unwinding feeder to feed, using the automatic feeding rod for process parts transfer , use the automatic conveyor belt to collect the off-line products, as shown in Figure 3.

(2) Features.

A. The material can be a coil material or a sheet material, which has great flexibility and increases material utilization.

B. Uses automatic rod feeding, which is slower than the progressive die production line and faster than the traditional tandem production line, which can achieve higher production efficiency.

C. Can equip with the loading and unloading sensor, double material detection, pinch sensor, in-mold sensor, etc., to control the position and state detection of the material and the production parts, and is highly safe.

D. There is a high requirement for the feeding height and the feeding direction of each station. In order to ensure the stability of the feeding, it is generally necessary to ensure the consistency of the process steps in each process.

Tandem stamping automation production line

(1) Overview: Arranged by multiple presses in series into an automated production line. Each presses is mounted with a pair of dies (ie, one step of the production process), and the loading is performed by an automatic robot arm. The transfer, blanking and packing work is shown in Figure 4.

(2) Features.

A. It has a wide application range and can be applied to the production of various stamping parts. It has no high requirements on the size, shape and thickness of stamping parts, and can be applied to the production of large-sized cover parts with high flexibility.

B. Production efficiency is low, due to the use of mechanical arm feeding, the pressing speed can not be higher, compared with the progressive production line and multi-station production line, the production efficiency is lower.

C. Is convenient for mold repair and debugging. Each pair of dies on each press are independent, thus the working parameters are independent, and the maintenance and debugging of each mold process can be carried out independently without affecting each other.

D. Occupying a large production space, a traditional tandem production line generally includes 4 to 5 presses and covers a large area.

Selection and application of stamping automation production line

Progressive Die Stamping Automated Production Line: Considering the process characteristics that various processes are distributed on a single continuous strip and the high efficiency in metal stamping, it can be applied to the production of small parts on the car body and can meet a high supply.

Multi-station stamping automation production line: It can be applied to the rapid production of medium-sized parts, for example, the beam parts that are not easy to be deformed, the symmetrical parts with complex left and right common-mode shapes, and the products that can be clamped by the clips on the automatic rod.

Tandem stamping automation production line: Because its various processes are independently distributed in each press, the production line has the highest flexibility and is suitable for large-sized coverings with complicated production processes, which is conducive to the commissioning and independent production of individual processes, and is convenient for quality control of products.

The characteristics of the three production lines are shown in Table 1.

The selection of each stamping automation line can be based on two main requirements: High-volume and high-flexibility parts require high-efficiency, high-volume automated production lines. If the parts are complex and require high production processes, a flexible production line can be selected. A simple illustration is shown in Figure 5.

With its own characteristics, the stamping automation production lines have been applied to major automobile factories, providing a strong guarantee for the development of the automotive industry and the rapid growth of automobile production. The analysis and understanding of the stamping automation production line facilitates the selection of stamping parts production methods, making full use of the advantages of their respective automatic lines to serve the automotive field.