Strength and intelligence: Sander transfer systems
In the inhospitable environment of transfer presses, Sander transfer systems achieve excellent performance. The cooperation with NUM is flexible and goal-oriented and an important part of our success.
The floor is vibrating to a beat, the noise is terrifying and there is a smell of metal in the air. The stamp swoops down twice a second and gradually forms sheet metal into a shape. Housings and parts of every shape and for a variety of uses are formed step by step in the transfer presses.
For all the individual steps the work piece is moved from one tool to the next. High-precision machines and exactly timed procedures are the key to transferring the work pieces. The high speed of transporting the parts is also important from an economical point of view. In 1979, Sander Umformtechnik GmbH entered the market as a manufacturer for mechanical transfer systems for metal stamping. Employees working at Sander Automation have extensive know-how which is application-specific and proves essential in each project. In 1995, transfer systems were needed for mass forming with particularly high requirements: scale, aggressive lubricants, high temperatures combined with larges masses and high performance. Three years later, Sander introduced NC transfer systems with rocker technology onto the market and the sales figures rose to above-average. In 2003, Sander Automation GmbH was established as an independent company in the Sander Group and serves customers from all over Europe, in Korea, Japan, Russia and China with its staff of 27 people. Customers in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil are serviced by TTS Automation, the Canadian subsidiary in the Sander Group.
The Sander transfer systems have a low space requirement due to the rocker technology. The tool-making room is not compromised and stays 100% available for mounting tools. The grabbing, lifting and advancing movements are carried out with a repeat precision of +/- 0.1 mm even at the highest number of strokes (up to 300 per minute), which is demanding for the CNC and drives. Engineers from Sander and NUM worked very hard together to ensure an exactly timed procedure and the exact feedback information was attained.
Mr. Stüwe, the technical head of the group described the work with NUM very clearly: “Our customers are our focus and it is our job to satisfy their demands. To do this we need versatile, skilled, goal-oriented cooperation partners with fast response times – exactly what NUM has to offer.” Fine-tuning and optimising the system requires a lot of work from both sides. To customise everything exactly to all the conditions is no problem for NUMDrive C and the Axium Power CNC as well as the motion rules for low tolerance drives (such as polynominal 5th grades).
And also for the transfer machine control requirements. Although the NUMpass HMI user interface is extremely flexible and configurable, Matthias Anton, Head of Electrotechnology developed one especially for Sander’s operation; “This partnership demonstrates that NUM has fully supported us in this area.” The target is the customer requirement to have high-quality work pieces as fast as possible with low waste in order to survive in the fiercely competitive automobile industry – exactly what Sander and NUM provide.
(May 2007)