Author Archives: Bernard & Company

REP Corporation Relocating Headquarters

Company moving HQ to Kodak, Tennessee, near Knoxville; plans to retain Chicago area facility for sales and service of its molding machinery 

REP Corporation (Bartlett, Illinois), the market leader in rubber molding machinery, today announces plans to relocate their corporate headquarters to Kodak, Tennessee, near Knoxville.  The new facility is currently under construction and will be open in early 2019, according to company President Tim Graham.  From the new location, REP Corporation will conduct sales, service, engineering and machine demonstrations, plus parts warehousing, for customers in North America. REP Corporation is a subsidiary of the REP International, based in Lyon, France.

 

Plans include the employment of approximately 20 people for administration, engineering, sales and field service.  REP Corporation currently maintains an install base of more than 3000 machines and has been selling in the North American market since 1970.

The current facility in Bartlett, Illinois near Chicago, will be maintained as a sales and service office for the company.

Aftersales Director Jim Wirtz explains, “We began our search about two years ago, recognizing the migration of the rubber industry to the South, as it follows the primary automotive OEM.  We were impressed by the efforts of Sevier County in Tennessee, especially Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters plus Allen Newton and his team at the Economic Development Council.  This is a major step for REP, as we’ve occupied essentially the same location in Chicagoland since we began here in 1970.  We look forward to broadening our presence in the country and becoming part of this vibrant new industrial community in Kodak.”

Technical Director at REP, Josh Beachum, adds, “One of the strong factors in our decision was the talent pool of young engineers in this area, combined with the technical training options available to us.  The rubber molding business has a very unique set of chemistries and manufacturing technologies that require ongoing training and mastery.”

Anna Seel, the Accounting Director at REP Corporation, notes, “We will provide very competitive wages and benefit package to our new employees, most of whom will come from the local community. This second location will help us provide support to our customers more effectively.”

National Sales Director Derek Williams further states, “This move represents an opportunity to support our transplanted existing customers who have followed the auto industry to the South, plus the newly emerging markets here.”

Tim Graham, concludes, “We’ve received a very enthusiastic welcome from the local business community here, making this decision to relocate from our longtime Chicago headquarters an easier move.” He added the company plans to relocate immediately upon completion of the new facility, located in the Smith-Thomas Technology Park in Kodak.

 

REP provides the North America rubber industry with a full range of injection and compression presses, plus laser mold cleaning and other ancillary equipment, as well as REP Pack 4.0, its proprietary software suite for the management of all press parameters and machine kinematics, providing manageable data for the digital factory and Industry 4.0, the rapidly advancing standard for rubber factory operations.

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For more information on this announcement, please contact:
REP Corporation
8N740 Tameling Court
Bartlett, IL 60103-8146
Phone: 847-697-7210
www.repinjection.com
Attention:  Tim Graham or Jim Wirtz

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Guill Introduces Reciprocating Head

Automated extrusion process drastically changes the extruded profile

Guill Tool, a global manufacturer of extrusion tooling, has released its new reciprocating head. The traditional tip and die assembly is replaced with a linear reciprocating assembly that changes the tube’s profile within a given length. This process is repeated throughout a single extrusion run without interruptions. Cutting capability, in association with the extrusion speed, cuts the finished product to length.

While cost and value stream activities are reduced, quality is improved. Only one extrusion run is needed to produce a finished product, as opposed to multiple extrusion runs with tooling changes along with a manual assembly operation to connect different tubing shapes.  Guill’s new reciprocating head eliminates an assembly operation. It also eliminates in-process inventory. Thus, there is no need for storage of various tubing shapes and connectors needed for assembly, fulfillment of orders and replenishment of finished goods.

Furthermore, the reciprocating head eliminates a connecting piece, allows JIT production and products made-to-order. Lastly, it reduces total run time from receiving the order to shipping.

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For more information, please contact:

Bill Conley, Sales Manager
Guill Tool & Engineering
10 Pike Street
West Warwick, RI 02893
USA
Telephone:  401-828-7600
www.guill.com
bconley@guill.com

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GMTA Now Represents WEMA Glauchau GmbH

The full line of WEMA grinding machines includes internal, universal, external, roller bearing, and customized solutions.

German Machine Tools of America is now the  North American distributor of WEMA Glauchau GmbH. These high precision grinding machines will be shown by GMTA at IMTS 2018.

WEMA’s internal grinding machines maximize operating times with more efficient and integrated procedures. A repeatedly allocable tool and workpiece headstock are guided on up to six axes with an accuracy of 0.1 μm. WEMA SI is scalable and is adapted to the clients’ needs through specific mounting for the greatest machining efficiency. Powerful drives ensure quick availability with additional work and peripheral modules reducing costly non-productive times. Available in 4 different series (S2I, S3I, S6I and S10I), it offers machining of chuck and shaft-shaped parts. In addition, the internal grinding machines are equipped with internal cylinder/ cone, internal polygons, internal screw threads, up to 4 applicable grinding tools and high rigidity through the use of cast beds/hydropol beds.

With WEMA SU, universal grinding machines are available for the complex task of three-way machining of all major workpiece sizes. The machines are equipped with external and internal grinding units. Clamping operations provide decisive efficiency and precision benefits. WEMA’s technology enables machines to perform highly complex operations, while peripheral modules permit greater flexibility. These machines’ features include up to 3 swivel axes, machining of 4 sides in one clamping operation, machining of chuck and shaft-shaped parts and external grinding wheels with a maximum diameter of 600 mm. WEMA SU also offers additional features such as: 4 insertable internal grinding tools, 4 external grinding tools and cones, polygons, etc.

The company’s external grinding machines can machine parts up to 1,500 kg with external lengths of Ø  600 mm and 2,700 mm. Grinding wheels are available in Ø 500, 600, and 750 mm. Typical workpieces include railway axles, rollers, pipes and shafts.

Assemblies of the roller bearing grinding machines feature a strict modular structure used for various operations. One is for sequential internal, external and rim machining operations. Another is for simultaneous internal and external machining operations. Other modular structures are used for external machining operations, internal machining operations and rim machining operations. Machining jobs can be carried out on single or multi-row outer rings (OR) and inner rings (IR) of diverse bearing types. Notable features on these WEMA machines include three different types of milling centers (SW3, SW6, SW10), grounding of borings and tracks of inner rings, as well as tracks and outer diameters of outer rings. Outside rings have a diameter of approximately 300 mm to 900 mm. Shoulders, rims, etc can also be ground and different grinding operations can be performed in sequential or simultaneous grinding procedures.

Although the company’s grinding machines cover a wide range of possible applications,  they also build and design grinding machines to order ranging from more or less customized adaptations to complete designs of the machine.

 

For more information, please contact:

Scott Knoy
Vice President
German Machine Tools of America (GMTA)
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Office: 734-973-7800
Fax: 734-973-3053
Email: scott@gmtamerica.com
www.gmtamerica.com

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Schütte Offers Its SCX, CNC Multi-Spindle Automatic Lathe

Schütte (Jackson, Michigan) now sells SCX, its new multi-spindle automatic lathe.

In today’s industrial production, more complex workpieces are being produced in smaller batch sizes and shorter life cycles. To remain competitive, manufacturers have to react quickly and flexibly to market requirements.

These conditions have been met with the creation of Schütte’s multi-spindle automatic lathes. Everything that is not directly related to the production of workpieces has been eliminated from the machining area. There are no drives, cables, slides, lubrication lines or cooling lines within the tooling area. The clean and freely accessible machining area provides clients with the greatest possible configuration flexibility and the simplest retooling and tool retrofitting.

The SCX from Schütte offers several benefits. Some of these are free speed selection and free falling chips. Furthermore, extended machining options are available on the second workpiece side through exact transfer and three additional spindles. Expansion of the machining range is achieved through extended rear-side machining including C-and Y-axis. Lastly, multi-spindle production provides clients with a wide variety of workpiece geometries.

 

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For further information, please contact:

Brittany Oulch
SCHUTTE USA, LLC
4055 Morrill Road
Jackson, MI 49201
Phone: 517-782-3600 ex.10
www.schutteusa.com
boulch@schutteusa.com

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Guill Introduces Large Die Cart with Crosshead

Guill Tool is proud to announce the immediate availability of its new die cart with easy disassembly and reassembly. It features a high volume, adjustable center accumulating crosshead. This crosshead is designed to produce a smooth linear bore and provide jacketing over various substrates. The crosshead’s maximum thru core is 18,” while its maximum die ID is 23.” Built to handle thermoplastic applications, the crosshead includes tooling and isolation sleeve design.
Additionally, the tooling section features quadrant heating. Guill’s crosshead stand is equipped with an integral alignment station and concentric role guide. The stand is also an integral cleaning station, so clients don’t need to remove the crosshead for cleaning. Lastly, this crosshead has “on-the fly” catenary adjustment and can be easily maintained with simple hand tools.

For more information, please contact:

Bill Conley, Sales Manager
Guill Tool & Engineering
10 Pike Street
West Warwick, RI 02893
USA
Phone: 401-828-7600
www.guill.com

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Longtime Chemcoaters Director, Bill Krippes, Retires

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Schütte Offers PC Multi-Spindle Automatics

Schütte (Jackson, Michigan) now sells its PC, their new multi-spindle automatics.

Often, manufacturers need automatics that have greater capabilities. These include the machining of non-ferrous metal or steel, a combination of heavy roughing and accuracy, simple programming combined with versatility and a single machine that performs several production processes. The answer to these challenges is Schütte’s PC series.

Automatics in the PC series are machining centers. They are used whenever classic cam-controlled automatics reach their limit. Besides turning, PC multi-spindle automatics perform tapping, mill cutting, polygon cutting and eccentric drilling operations. Six or eight work spindles, endworking and cross slides can be controlled independently of each other. Rear-side machining can have up to three tools. Over 56 CNC axes can be easily programmed with Schütte’s SICS 2000 system.

PC multi-spindle automatics are designed for material removal of geometrically sophisticated parts made of hard solid materials. The machines are designed to be robust, durable and technically flexible for complex drilling operations. Furthermore, they provide ready-to-install precision parts in large and small batch sizes. Machines in the PC series feature short setup, non-production and part production times.

These machines are used by automobile manufacturers and suppliers, the fittings, pneumatics and hydraulics sector, as well as in the production of precision parts.

 

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For further information, please contact:

Brittany Oulch
SCHUTTE USA, LLC
4055 Morrill Road
Jackson, MI 49201
Phone: 517-782-3600 ex.10
www.schutteusa.com
boulch@schutteusa.com

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Major Automotive Supplier Expands Its Market with Schuler Presses

Huissel utilizes MSP servo presses for high production of complex stampings 

Canton, Michigan – Huissel, well-known as a reliable die and sheet metal part supplier for the European automotive and supplier industry, looked to Schuler presses to help expand their market.

Huissel wanted to complete the die manufacturing process chain in Frankenthal, Germany, and the related delivery of sheet metal parts at the Enkenbach-Alsenborn site for its product line. According to the two managing directors, Peter Busalt and Gerald Schug, these market potentials could not be achieved with the existing machinery. A system was needed that would permit economical manufacturing of medium and high lot sizes while enabling easy operation. Huissel chose the Schuler MSP 800; the latest expansion of the newly developed servo press series of Schuler.

“We examined suppliers from Spain and Italy to Germany,” says Peter Busalt. “But only the MSP series from Schuler currently has the functions we need.” Gerald Schug adds, “The ease of operability of the machine was important for us, for example, because this aspect helps even inexperienced employees quickly achieve good results in regard to taking advantage of the full potential of the servo press.”

Operators can select from predefined movement curves or program them freely. A fixed component of the control system is the Smart Assist software from Schuler, which performs the setup procedure for the dies step by step – another advantage for Gerald Schug: “In this way, we can shorten the usual launch of production to a fraction of the previous time.”

The commissioning of the new press is also considerably faster thanks to a digital twin. Here, the virtual system model is connected to the real control system with the machine and system visualization system. All functions of the MSP 800 can be simulated on the computer in this manner. The functionality and operation of the system can therefore be tested and trained on the real machine.

Huissel will set up a new building in its Enkenbach-Alsenborn factory for the MSP 800. As a whole, this project is the largest single investment in the company’s 100-year history. Huissel also intends to attach dies that it has manufactured in its Frankenthal factory 25 miles away to the new servo press. The tie rod structure of the MSP 800, which offers particularly high rigidity, also guarantees the quality of the parts production.

Schuler presented the MSP 400, a smaller version of the MSP 800, to the general public at the EuroBLECH trade fair in Hanover for the first time. The smallest members of the group, the single-rod automatic blanking press CSP 100 and the double-rod automatic blanking press MSP 200, are already in use at stamping companies. What all these presses have in common is the innovative knuckle-joint drive with highly dynamic servo motors and additional smart functions, such as condition monitoring.

Schuler is currently in development and will soon offer a press force of 1,250 tons.

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For more information, please visit:

www.schulergroup.com/servopresses

For further information on Schuler Inc., North America, please contact:
Jeferson Valerio, Director of Sales
Schuler Incorporated
7145 Commerce Blvd.
Canton, MI 48187 USA
734-207-7200
info@schulerinc.com
www.schulergroup.com

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Hoist Attachment Handles All 55 Gallon Drums

Buffalo Grove, IL, Liftomatic Material Handling, Inc., an industry leading material handling equipment manufacturer, recently introduced the HCB hoist attachment to handle all 55 gallon drums.

The HCB hoist attachment safely lifts steel, fiber and plastic drums weighing up to 2000 lbs. using Liftomatic’s exclusive “Parrot-Beak®” drum handling attachment. The model HCB-BC attaches to any overhead hoist, crane or boom and engages drums automatically. Liftomatic’s exclusive mechanical clamping system engages the top lip of the container, assuring a safe and reliable pick-up each time.

An adjustable counter-balance on the main frame of the unit allows for safe handling of all drums from 15 to 27 inches in diameter. A padded belt cradle protects the drum sidewall during transport. The model HCB is available in 1 or 2 drum configurations, including stainless steel units for food grade and pharmaceutical applications.

Liftomatic Material Handling, Inc. is an acknowledged leader in the design and manufacture of drum handling equipment. Headquartered in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, Liftomatic maintains manufacturing, engineering and sales facilities around the globe. Liftomatic currently sells products in over 40 countries and sells to more than 400 of the Fortune 500 companies.

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For more information, please contact:
Liftomatic Material Handling, Inc.,
700 Dartmouth Lane, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089,
Sales Dept. 847-325-2930
Web: www.liftomatic.com
Email: info@liftomatic.com

For more product information, please contact:
George Gambini
Liftomatic Material Handling
700 Dartmouth Lane
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
sales@liftomatic.com
847-325-2930 ext. 1226
www.liftomatic.com

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Increasing Static Friction with Laser

By Gerhard Flores, Manager of Technology Development and Intellectual Property
Gehring, Farmington Hills, Michigan

Note to editor: Information in this article was derived from the presentation given by Gerhard Flores at AGMA’s Fall Technical Meeting between September 24^th and 26^th in Chicago.

Gerhard Flores discusses the need for flat and curved surfaces with the functionality of high static friction for force-fitted nonslip power transmissions. This need is especially true for con rod and cam structuring for high torque resistance or front face connections of sprockets, gears or cam shaft adjustments. He details that expensive solutions like diamond layers, coatings or form fitting design are being substituted. Instead, innovative manufacturing is now performed by a modified laser process with defined exposed micro structures. The prerequisite for high friction is exposed micro melting burrs of smaller micrometer height with martensitic material structures. As a result, high static friction surfaces can be produced economically with repeatability of small tolerances in high-volume productions.

Production of surfaces that generate static frictional connections with the counterpart are increasingly realized with a modified laser beam. The contact surfaces actuated by adherence are laid out with topographies that assure the functioning of work pieces and they can be produced in a cost-efficient way. The requirements of the connections include loads by torques and shearing forces. The system is kept is kept in a state of adhesive friction during the different operational conditions and does not allow any relative movement of the contact areas.

The principal feature of the adhesive system was revealed in a stress test. In it, hardened and structured contact surfaces are loaded against non-structured and unhardened ones with an axial force of 80 kN over 60 seconds for a twist angle of 4 degrees. The course of torque was indicated as target value. The contact areas (di= 15 m, da= 30 mm) were dry and free of grease. At the junction of adhesive and sliding friction, there is a maximum of adhesive value.

Using the adhesive friction bench or the functional aggregate, the effects of structure can be evaluated. Every structure that increases adhesive friction is characterized by a raised profile contour that has influence on the counter body. Next, manifold micro form profiles are produced to absorb shearing forces. Furthermore, the micro form profiles result in a frictional connection with high adhesive friction value. Due to the thermal effect of the laser beam, hardness is generated due to the short heating time.

There are significant differences in the laser structured adhesive friction surfaces of cams, connecting rods, front face connections and pre-treated substrate surfaces. Cam topographies can be raised with low profile elevations and without deepening. Material melts evenly. The structure lines of connecting rods are equidistant superposed. Both cam shafts and connecting rods can absorb torque of shaft hub joints. Between the structures of front face connections, there are often deepenings caused by material transfer. Lastly, pre-treated substrate surfaces display a squamous structure with micro recesses and are suitable to join layer materials to substrates.

Laser structuring of adhesive friction surfaces in rigid friction type connections can substitute positive locking design connections or other expensive friction type connections like diamond interlayers. The achievable adhesive value depends on the depth of the height, the profile shape of the laser structured roughness profile, the arrangement of the structure density, the martensitic properties of lasered materials, the normal force and whether the lubricant is embedded in the contact surfaces or not.

Different connections with torsional strength have different cylindrical contact surfaces. A shrinking connection with the laser structured inner surface of the cam and the shaft, enables the cost effective built cam shaft in serial production. In the case of the clamping connection shaft and the hub, the laser structured contact surfaces are engaged by clamping. This replaces the costly alternative of positive connections. In this way, pin or fitting connections can be replaced by friction type contact surfaces with high adhesive friction generated by the laser structured process.

Another category is the frictional connections of plain functional surfaces for the transmission of shearing forces of torques. The laser structured front surface, often designed with an alignment element replaces cost-intensive solutions like form-locked joint coupling with frontal tooling or inserted diamond or SiC interlayers as slices for the increase of the friction value. Applications related to the combustion engine like pinion, cam shaft adjuster, ball bearing or related to the chassis frame are becoming frequently demanded alternatives to the expensive solutions with slices and interlayers.

Laser structuring of the connecting rods is realized by means of the crank pin, which joins the connecting rod and the crankshaft. The design of the bearing consists of the rod eye, the bearing shell and the crank pin of the crankshaft. There is a rotational relative movement between the crank pin and the inner side of the bearing shell. The joint is laid out as a sliding bearing and works with low friction. However, there is no movement allowed between the outer side of the bearing shell and the connecting rod bore. Here, a sufficient high adhesion is required to absorb the frictions within the sliding bearing. Next, a frictional connection is necessary to deliver the suitable torque strength by means of the elevated topography of the connecting rod and the resulting adhesion.

For the process of laser structuring, a solid body laser with scanning optics is used. The two beam sources are arranged above the connecting rod eye laterally, the connecting rod bore. The beam sources work simultaneously and structure each of the two areas with the connecting rod bore. In each unit, the pulsed beam is guided by the galvanometer scanners with two galvanometer mirrors each. There is no mechanically actuated displacement or positioning of the beam and the focal movement is carried out quickly, line by line, with the highest precision and simultaneously by the movable optics of the integrated scanning heads.

The laser structuring of cams takes place after the shaft and cams are machined as single parts and are assembled by thermal friction type connected processes. In order to achieve sufficient torque strength of the cams, their bores are structured for enhanced adhesion.

Friction type connections are applied in several sectors of mechanical engineering and vehicle design for the transmission of shearing forces and torque. Frontal face connections with plain contact surfaces are laser structured in serial production. Cam shaft adjuster, chain pinions or gears are the focus of the central valve of Schaeffler with the cam shaft in serial production. This valuable technology reduces carbon dioxide emissions. By laser structuring of the main bearing, a high torsion strength of the bearing shell can be realized by the roughly structured areas of a cylindrical type connection as well as heat transfer by the smooth unstructured areas.

In conclusion, the advantage of laser structuring with integrated scanning is that the structuring segments on curved and plain surfaces can be freely dimensioned and positioned. In addition, the structure data and the tolerances of the different surface values can be adjusted by the beam parameter. The structuring process is completely automatable and can be integrated in a production line. Laser structuring allows an increase of static friction up to 5 times. Compared with diamond interlayers, the costs and number of parts is significantly lower.

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For more information, please contact:

Jacqueline Fette
Marketing Manager
Gehring
24800 Drake Road
Farmington Hills, Michigan, 48335
Cell: +1 248 954 8383
Email: Jacqueline.fette@gehring-group.com

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