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The Tooling
With the Button
by Jim Sojka
Vice President of Sales
Wila USA
For today’s metal fabricators, a
constant change in press brake tooling is in high demand in order to gain more productivity. More productivity means the difference between added profit and just making a profit.
What is the actual cost for a piece part is unknown, for the most part, by the sheet metal fabrication management. Not only to bend the material, but to include the set-up time must also be considered.
What is set-up time?
Set up time is defined as: total elapsed time from completion of the last production run of parts to a
new production run of another part.
How fast does a normal U.S. metal fabricator press brake operator change press brake tooling? And more importantly how much does a tool
change cost? These two questions are never considered in today’s shop. “It’s just the cost of doing business” is the normal answer we receive…but why should that be? To investigate the answer, we must look into cost.
The average U.S. sheet metal fabricator shop rate is $60.00 an hour. Of course some locations in the U.S. are higher, but some are lower. Still the cost is $60.00
an hour or $1.00 a minute. Look at that $1.00 a minute cost. That’s $1.00 a minute to unbolt tooling…slide the tooling out onto a cart…install new tooling
(once you found it in the rack)...tighten the tooling…lower the ram to put pressure on the new tooling in order to seat the tooling…and tighten the bolts. At $1.00 a minute, that’s lost productivity.
The normal U.S. fabrication shop takes 12 to 15 minutes to change press brake tooling. That’s $12.00 to $15.00 for every tooling change. If a fabrication shop
changes tooling 8 times in one shift that can either be $96.00 to $120.00 a day. Imagine, $100.00 a day of lost productivity or $500.00 a week. What can we do to eliminate the majority of that cost?
With the segmented tooling and the “quick change button”, we can recover an average of 80% and sometimes even higher. Save $400.00 a week, just by
changing press brake tooling. The Wila concept of changing tooling was introduced in 1991 at the European EMO Exhibition with great success. Great success in Europe and now in the United States.
The “tooling with the button” are segmented upper tool punches that are higher precision ground to 0.0004". All surface dimensions are precision ground to
0.0004". That’s why we can guarantee a perfect, smooth alignment for tooling to match up with another section of tooling…perfect all the time.
The “tooling with the button” also has two other features not present in other tooling. They are:
- Chrome-Molybdenum material
- Laser hardened tips
Chrome-Molybdenum material is specially smelted in Germany with finished properties of approximately 35 RC. General purpose tooling is generally between 22 and 25 RC.
After precision machining the radius tips are laser hardened to approximately 60 RC to give years of performance of accurate forming.
With the “quick change tooling” all upper punch sections with weights less than 12.5kg/28 lbs. are installed in a vertical fashion. And with all precision ground
sections of 515mm/20" in length, one person can change tooling in a matter of seconds from a tooling cabinet and not a tooling rack.
Reduce set-up time, complete more piece parts per shift, add productivity… add “the tooling with the button”.
For more information, please contact:
Wila USA
9135 Guilford Road
Columbia, MD 21046
Tel: 301-490-9652
Fax: 301-222-0002
www.wilausa.com
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710 Remington Road