Case | 11.11.2022
24.02.2023
Chain links for CVT transmission.
The target.
Bosch Transmission Technology B.V. produces the world’s most cut fineblanked parts in Tilburg, the Netherlands: elements for slider link belts in continuously variable automatic transmissions. Each belt contains more than 400 such elements. With a market share of a good 70 percent of all push link belts worldwide, Bosch cuts almost two billion individual elements per year. The plant processes 20 to 25 tons of sheet steel per day. These quantities alone show how important productivity and OEE are for the operation.
"We've had an extreme surge in demand over the past few years, and we've had to respond by increasing our productivity." Peter-Paul Mauritsz, Process Engineer at Bosch Transmission Technology
The Feintool solution.
In order to further increase output and availability, Bosch Transmission Technology replaced eleven existing MFA 1600 fineblanking presses with ten servomechanical XFT 2500speed by the beginning of 2013. With the help of Feintool, the number of strokes was subsequently increased to up to 140 strokes per minute. Instead of four-fold falling dies, Bosch also works with eight-fold falling dies on the new presses – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The switch to the servomechanical XFT 2500speed presses is ideal for Bosch Transmission Technology’s requirements. The production of the small thrust link elements requires high precision. They must be absolutely parallel and symmetrical, which is very manageable thanks to the XFT 2500speed’s controllable servo drive. The result is a product quality of 0 PPM. In addition, the OEE is more than 80 percent – also because the tool life could be doubled from 20,000 to 40,000 parts.
The success.
- Open up new part areas for fineblanking
- Tool change within 30 minutes instead of 45 to 60 minutes
- Compatible with existing molds for GKP and MFA presses
- 30 to 40 percent higher productivity
