RP420-WF30 : TOP PRODUCT FASTENER TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE
15/02/2017
Not all materials can be formed in ambient
temperature without the risk of cracks or abnormal tool wear causing the
production to be unprofitable. Such materials are aeronautic titanium,
aluminium alloys series 2000 and 6000, nickel superalloys like Inconel, Inconel®or
Waspaloy®, stainless steels or 100Cr6 steel. Thanks to the use of induction
heaters, capable of warming up the screws (or only a part of it) to the
temperatures reaching 900°C it is possible to form such materials with normal
tool wear and to obtain the right geometrical quality of the part. Still the
use of heating unit is not enough – the key is to design the machine in such a
way that the heat from inductor, from the feeding rails to the tool holder do
not propagate into the machine, because otherwise we could not talk about any
dimensional precision nor permanent process temperature control. That is why
the stationary tool holder and the inductor heater are chilled in a close
circuit cooling system. For temperature control there is optical pyrometer checking
the temperature of each parts before the threading operation.
To compliment the Sacma warm former line,
Ingramatic introduces their Warm Forming machines. Combining the heavy duty design and features
of the revolutionary I-Thread, the WF provides a significant increase in thread
quality, productivity and efficiency by rolling all shapes of bolts, screws,
studs and parts made of materials difficult to roll. The machine features include new feeding
rails for the installation of an induction coil with an exclusive design, a 30KW
generator, a chiller, a high frequency inverter box, an optical pyrometer, and
a cooled stationary die holder. A set of
selectors manage the parts at the end of the heating area to ensure the parts
are consistently oriented to the starter unit at the correct temperature. The
repeatability of the heating is assured by using a longer induction coil
compare what it is actually existing on the market with the home made solution
or a rollers adapted with a heating unit. As per Sacma headers, this induction
coil design allows the system to warm wide range of materials with only one
induction coil. Consequently, this Warm Forming roller provides quick
changeover making it ideal for the small lot sizes in the Aerospace fastener
market.
As usual for the machines made by Sacma Group, the
R&D developed a fully integrated machine. This philosophy is applied for
both hardware equipment and management of the heating unit. The I-Panel provided
by Ingramatic allows the machine to manage the heating unit in automatic mode during
the startup of the production but also during the stoppage of the machine. This
means that the critical operations normally made by the operators manually are
now directly managed by the PLC of the machine. When the machine starts the
production, the PLC manage the heating unit until the correct temperature is
reached, then starts to feed the starter unit with a precise amount of warmed
parts. It is possible to set up a tolerance for the temperature and reject the
parts not at the right temperature. This is the only one guarantee to obtain
the perfect integrity of the threads and also to avoid any damage of the
material structure. During the startup operation, the machine reject
automatically the parts not at the right temperature thanks to the optical
pyrometer driving directly the rejection device. A special software allows the
machine to reduce the number of rejected parts. During the production, to
manage the quality and the repeatability of the part dimensions, the pyrometer
and the load monitor check each part and reject the n.c. parts automatically
without stopping the machine and the heating unit.
Ingramatic said that for a complete changeover, 30
minutes are necessary and for a changeover consisting only on the part length,
10 minutes are enough. This makes the RP420-WF30 very competitive for the
Aerospace market where the production quantity are very low.
This is possible because the RP420-WF30 is part of
the I-Thread machine design, the revolutionary line of thread rolling machines
emphasized by the following points:
- Quick Setup,
all adjustments fully motorized.
- Rigid,
the exclusive new design frame has been optimized by using FEM software with a
“C” shaped stiffener, specifically designed to counter the stresses caused by
thread rolling of heat treated parts and special profiles.
- User
friendly / Ergonomic, I-Panel Touch Screen controls with all WF functions
integrated in a page dedicated to the Warm Forming unit and a constant control
thanks to the main page showing the real temperature and the KW necessary to
warm the parts.
- Flexibility,
Single Starter unit driven by servomotor – Patented system, servomotor for the
die match with load monitor control and hydraulic clamping of the drive unit.
- Simple to
use for the operators, the Electronic handwheel can be used for all machine
adjustments - die match – rail position - starter unit; eliminating the use of
hand tools.
- High
speed & Reliability thanks to the precision of the starter unit, the
unique design of the feeding rails and the square design of the frame.
Regarding the spare parts and service, Ingramatic
uses the same components than Sacma. This guarantees the immediate availability
of spare parts ensuring the best service and consents Ingramatic to provide a
tested and approved complete machine avoiding to make any improvisation.
With this new WF line, Sacma Group, already leading
the market of headers made for exotic materials, completes perfectly its whole
range of machines and now is able to provide any kind of machinery for the
Aerospace market and other market using special materials for making screws and
bolts.
The Ingramatic and Sacma Warm Forming machines can
also be used in cold forming mode making them flexible and competitive to guarantee
its payback.
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