Press Line Research Articles

Steps and Challenges in Analyzing Real Sensor Data from a Productive Press Shop and its Value for Predictive Maintenance Application

This paper highlights the significance of AI-powered maintenance strategies in modern industry for operational optimization and reduced downtime. It emphasizes the crucial role of sensor data analysis in identifying anomalies and predicting failures. The research specifically examines sensor data from an automotive press shop, addressing questions related to data selection, collection challenges, and knowledge generation. By utilizing unsupervised learning on compressed air data from a press line, the study identifies patterns, anomalies, and correlations. The results offer insights into the potential for implementing an effective predictive maintenance strategy. Additionally, a systematic literature review underscores the importance of data analysis in production systems, particularly in the context of maintenance.

Creating a Virtual Shadow of the Manufacturing of Automotive Components

Within the automotive industry, there is an increasing demand for a paradigm shift in terms of which materials are used for the manufacturing of the automotive body. Global climate goals are forcing a rapid adaption of new, advanced, sustainable material grades such as the fossil free steels and materials containing higher scrap content. With the introduction of these new and untested materials, methods for accounting for variation in material properties are needed directly in the press lines.The following study will focus on creating an initial virtual shadow of the manufacturing of a Volvo XC90 inner door panel through the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The virtual shadow differs from the concept of the digital twin by only being a virtual representation of the production line, with training data generated exclusively by numerical simulations, and having no automated communication with the physical press line control system. The virtual shadow can be used as an assistance to the press line operators to see how different press line settings and material parameter variations will impact the quality of the stamped component. The study aims to validate the virtual shadow through accurate predictions of the material draw-in measured in the physical press line.

Investigation of Temperature Impact on Friction Conditions in Running Production of Automotive Body Components

During the running production of automotive body components drifts in the process window is seen causing problems with non-conforming parts. Up until now, these drifts have been counter-acted based on the knowledge and experience of the press line operators. This experience-based process control will however become more troublesome in the future as recycled material grades will undoubtedly present larger in-coil variations in material parameters and effect also the friction conditions from component to component.The following study will present two cases from production of the Volvo XC60. For the two cases, the initial simulations made for the components showed a safe part, but during running production failure occurred suspected to be due to temperature effects in the tribology system. The study will furthermore present updated simulations considering developing thermal effects to replicate the failures, as well as present both standard and thermal simulations of the adjustments made in production.

LOWERING CUSTOMER CLAIM &; NG RATIO ON JACK BRACKET PART USING LEAN SIX SIGMA-DMAIC METHOD AT PT. XYZ

PT. XYZ is a manufacturing company that produces Sub Assembly products for two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles. Broadly speaking, the stages of the Jack Bracket production process consist of five processes, namely the sharing stage in the Raw Material Line, the Stamping process in the Small Press Line, the Spot Welding Stage in the Welding Assy Line and the Checking Stage in the Final Inspection Line. This research was conducted at Line Assy Welding where the Line produces Jack Bracket parts and Line Final Inspection. Based on NG Outflow &; NG Ratio data in the period July to December 2023, 57 pcs of spot defects were obtained and the number of internal process defects was 32,325 PPM which is equivalent to sigma level 3.3. After applying the six sigma method, the number of NG Customer Claims is nil (0 pcs) and the level of product defects can be reduced to 7,500 PPM which is equivalent to sigma level 4.

Pressure Distributions in Deep Drawing with a Passive Cardanic Blank Holder

Deep drawing processes are strongly influenced by the blank holder forces, as well as their local distribution. In current deep drawing tools, this pressure distribution is dominated by the compliance of the specific machine the tool is mounted on. Therefore, each tool must be manually polished to enable the desired distribution of the blank holder pressure. This regularly causes problems when transferring tools from one machine to another, for example from a try-out press to a regular press line. As both machines have unique compliances, the pressure distribution on the flange of the drawn part changes. Additional manual spot grinding is needed to achieve the desired pressure distribution on the flange. To counteract this problem, the use of a passive cardanic blank holder is proposed in this paper. The cardanic blank holder can freely tilt around two axes, which leads to an auto-leveling effect of the blank holder on the sheet, resulting in a more uniform blank holder pressure. This effect is demonstrated experimentally using pressure sensitive film on the same tool with two different blank holders, one equipped with a conventional blank holder, the other with a cardanic blank holder. To demonstrate transferability, the experiments are repeated on multiple single acting presses. The contribution will present and discuss the resulting pressure distributions.

Phoenix Rises with Installation of New Press Line

Phoenix Rises with Installation of New Press Line

Multi-objective trajectory optimization of the manipulator transferring compliant sheet metal parts

The deformation of the compliant part is the key factor that affects the production efficiency of the automobile press line. Considering multi-manipulator trajectories and part contours, this paper quantitatively analyzes the deformation of compliant parts when the manipulator transfers sheet metal parts. A multi-objective co-optimization method is proposed to generate smooth motion curves with smaller velocity, acceleration, and jerk. Based on the built-in module of rigid to flex in ADAMS software, some rigid parts such as the end effector and sheet metal part are transformed into compliant ones. And the redundant manipulator in the press line is taken as the representative case to check whether the trajectory performance is conducive to deformation suppression. Simulation result shows that the jerk curve without cusp points is more conducive to suppressing the part deformation than that with cusp points.

Measurement of suction cups release time for press line

Measurement of suction cups release time for press line

Measurement of suction cups release time for press line

Measurement of suction cups release time for press line

Investigation of frictional behavior of steel and aluminum at different temperatures

In order to evaluate the performance of the press line, it is essential to investigate the frictional behavior and properties of materials under production temperatures. In servo press line production conditions, the tooling temperature can reach 45-55 °C after around 150 stampings. In this investigation, a clamping fixture with drawbead and flat plate inserts was employed to conduct the friction tests at room temperature and an elevated temperature (54 °C). Three mild steels and two aluminum grades (5000 and 6000 series) were used in the tests. The results from drawbead tests showed that friction force on the two aluminum materials increased by 10% at 54 °C compared to that at room temperature. However, for the 3 steels the change of friction force was negligible from 22 °C to 54 °C. This implies that for exposed panel applications, the selected steel grades might have a more controlled sliding behavior potentially resulting in better control of formability than aluminum grades for the range of temperatures observed during production stamping.

Composite Arm Boosts Productivity

A new composite robot arm gondola has standardised tandem press line tooling and improved productivity in a new development project.

Investigating the Attitude and Behavior of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences Students Regarding Prayer in 2020-2021

Background and Objectives: The three main elements of the home, study environment, and mass media have a fundamental role in the tendency and attitude of adolescents and young people to pray. This study was conducted to determine students’ attitudes toward prayer, the causes of their tendency toward it, and its impact on various aspects of their lives. Methods: This descriptive study was performed among 192 students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan City, Iran. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire through the press line system. Data were analyzed by SPSS software, version 18 using an independent t-test and One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: A total of 60.9% of students reported that they perform daily prayers. The Mean±SD score of students’ attitude about praying is 121.99±199.97 out of 165. A significant correlation was observed between the mean score of attitude and behavior. A significant relationship was also found between the mean score of students’ attitudes and the variables of father’s education, father’s and mother’s occupation (P<0.05). The students believed that prayer brings peace and vitality to the soul, order and discipline in life, good mood, family unity, and reduced anxiety and stress. Conclusion: Considering the role and impact of family and university environment on students’ prayer and students’ beliefs on the impact of prayer on various life issues, paying attention to the results of this type of research to institutionalize prayer among students can be useful.

Effects of Activated Carbon on Medium Density Fiber Board Properties

The negative effects of formaldehyde emission in MDF production on human health are known, and therefore many scientists are working to reduce formaldehyde emissions. In this study, the effects of MDF plates on formaldehyde emission were investigated by adding different amounts of activated carbon into urea formaldehyde resin during the synthesis phase.
 
 First, the gelation time behavior of the resin was studied by observing the pH, gelation time, solid content, flow time and viscosity of the modified resin in comparison to the standard reference resin which has no activated carbon inside. The dosing of the activated charcoal in the dry resin was kept at 1wt%, 3wt% and 5wt%. After that modified resin was used in the production of 40x40 cm2 MDF samples by using laboratory scale press line with full automation system. İnternal bonding strength, surface soundness, screw holding resistance, water absorption and thickness swelling were also measured in addition to the main interested parameter formaldehyde emission level which is determined via spectrometric technique following an extraction procedure.
 
 Threshold values for activated carbon were determined to be 1wt%. Formaldehyde emission level was observed where addition of 1wt% activated carbon into the urea formaldehyde adhesive decreased the formaldehyde emission 52% comparison to reference whereas addition of activated carbon at above its threshold level provided 47% decreasing.

Improving the productivity of Pini-Kay fuel briquettes by modernizing the working part of the PSH-250 press

The research related to the productivity of production of fuel briquettes of the "Pini-Kay" type, due to the modernization of the working part of the press line for the production of fuel briquettes with a capacity of 250 kg / h (LVB - 250) was carried out. It is known that the press used on this line is PSH-250, it is the main working equipment of this line, as it serves to press the briquette under temperature and is the closing link in the whole briquette process. In the presented study, the main criterion of productivity was considered to be the number of manufactured products before the break of the splined auger, because the breakdown forces to stop the equipment and replace it. This in turn reduces the number of manufactured products. The paper states that the modernization was carried out as follows: the slot screw, which is the main working body of the press PSH - 250, made of structural steel (steel 45) by casting, was replaced by a slotted screw made by machining on CNC machines, high-quality structural alloy steel 40HMFA. This steel is used to make splined shafts, connecting rods and rods, and is best suited for making a splined auger. In addition, to increase the structural strength, the workpiece of the auger, was made heat treatment - normalization. The proposed technological solution allowed to increase the productivity of fuel briquettes, by reducing the downtime of equipment for repair and replacement of working parts of the press PSH-250. This in turn reduced the company's financial costs for spare parts and affected the cost of finished products. The obtained results show that the slotted augers proposed by the authors allowed to increase the productivity of fuel briquettes production almost 10 times in comparison with the previous results.

Research on fault detection of rolling bearings in press line by a new morphological filter based on diagonal slice spectrum lifting

Extraction of weak bearing failure signals remains a thorny issue in press lines. An adaptive enhanced morphological gradient operator (EMGO) fault feature diagnosis method based on third-order cumulant diagonal slice spectrum (AEMGO-TOCSS) is developed. Firstly, an EMGO is proposed to enhance the filtering ability of the operator according to the different features of the signal extracted by the basic morphological operator. Then, on account of the vital significance of structural element selection in filtering, a new adaptive feature energy permutation entropy (FEPE) selection strategy is put forward. Finally, the denoising performance of TOCSS is used to further improve the feature extraction ability of the EMGO operator for faulty information. Both simulation and experimental results verify that the EMGO is more effective and accurate than other morphological operators in identifying weak fault features of rolling bearings, and that it presents a broad application potential in practical engineering.

SMED Simulation in Optimising the Operating Output of Tandem Press Line in the Automotive Industry using WITNESS Software

The automotive industry is one of the most advanced industries in the world. The demand for vehicles keeps increasing over time, mainly influenced by technology’s sophistication and impressive designs. This research is focusing on the production performance of the stamping process in Malaysia’s automotive industry. The main issue observed and evidenced in data collected from industry players is that an unacceptably long time is taken in the die/tooling change process, which grossly affects the planned production output. The most significant direct impact on this situation is the increase in operating costs due to additional time taken to meet the planned production output. Therefore, this research aims to establish a new framework that can optimise the efficiency of the dies changeover process, which could lower the overall production cost, which could partially transfer the saving to the consumers. The study was conducted in two stages; the first is on data collection correlates with the automotive stamping premise to create a simulation procedure, and the second is to analyse the current production output using WITNESS simulation. These simulated output data have later been compared to the actual industrial data. Using a systematic dies changeover process, a new alternative framework was proposed. The framework combined single minute exchange of die (SMED), lean tools and simulation to become an integrated single minute exchange of die (ISMED). It shows that the proposed method decreased the changeovers processes from the initial of 1509.5 seconds to 750.75 seconds, then further reduced to 569.75 seconds, with the nett time reduction of 62.2%. The result shows that the daily production output has increased gradually from 1100 pieces to 1500 pieces, further increasing to 2145 pieces. As evidenced in analytical data, it is believed that this new framework can strengthen the total output in the manufacturing process, especially in the manufacturing of automotive stamping parts.

The method of task-driven structural synthesis for the creative design of the planar manipulator

In this paper, a new structural design method based on MATLAB is developed for the configuration design and optimization of real-life planar manipulators in the high-speed press line. To explore planar manipulators with better performance, the developed method provides a suite of analysis procedures including demonstrating structural synthesis in graph theory, building conversion relations between different models, and generating new configurations of the planar manipulator. In the structural synthesis, the whole family of non-isomorphism planar 8-link kinematic chains with up to 3 prismatic pairs is generated, which lays a solid foundation for the generation of new configurations of planar manipulators. Under the expected requirements and constraints, the original planar manipulator is compared with new planar manipulators in which the developed method. The result shows that the developed method of task-driven structural synthesis is effective in generating configurations of planar manipulators and enriches related research of structural design and optimization in the field.

Research on Intelligent Fault Diagnosis of Servo Hydraulic Drawing Cushion

The drawing cushion of press line in the press workshop of the whole car factory has been extensively upgraded from air cushion to hydraulic drawing cushion. The hydraulic drawing cushion is more accurate than the drawing force of the air cushion, however, the hydraulic drawing cushion is a complex of mechanical, hydraulic, Motion Control and detection technology, and coupled with the press, which makes the fault diagnosis of the hydraulic drawing cushion more difficult. This paper mainly introduces the problems of the coordination among the three systems of mechanical, hydraulic and electronic control of Rexroth Company’s servo-hydraulic drawing cushion and its intelligent fault diagnosis method.

Validation of Part Holder Models of Car Body Upper Line Dies for Return Stroke Loads

In modern press shops, the latest press technology is used to meet today’s efficiency requirements of sheet metal body part production. Thus, for example, servomechanical press ram drives enable optimized process control through configurable motion profiles of the ram, resulting in increased stroke rates and output of the press line. However, the acceleration of moving masses arising during post-forming operations of line dies can lead to critical loads for the upper die and press ram drive. Especially the part holder of line dies causes dynamic loads when being accelerated during the return stroke. In this regard, this paper deals with the validation of dynamic part holder models on the basis of experimental data obtained by a prototype tool. Finally, design specifications could be defined using the validated dynamic models, enabling the process windows of line dies to be extended in future for robust high-speed production processes in modern press shops.

A hybrid diagnostic system of main drive of industrial press line

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