Feintool Technology Forum 2021 Part 2.

eintool Technology Forum 2021: Press-integrated removal systems – intelligent solutions for part removal

Last week, the second webinar of the three-part Feintool Technology Forum went off successfully with over 150 participants from Europe, Asia and America. In our interview, Sven Hofstetter, Head of Competence Center Tools at Feintool, explains what a perfect world of part removal looks like.

Newsroom: Sven, you talked about a “perfect world” of parts removal in the second part of the FTL Technology Forum. What does this perfect world look like for you as the head of our Tools Competence Center?

Sven Hofstetter: In theory, it’s actually quite simple: The goal is a controlled process with a high output rate that leaves no impact points. Quality goes up, costs go down. In practice, of course, as is so often the case, it’s a bit more complicated. The development of press-integrated removal systems is all about finding the optimum balance between availability, performance and quality, and this in a very complex environment with minimum deviation tolerances. This is what we focus on when developing our part removal systems and integrating them into a press. Or to put it more simply: How many parts with the predicate “perfect” are in the box in the evening?

Newsroom: The first webinar was all about the FB one. The press flagship combines the best of all proven Feintool presses. What is the starting position as far as part removal systems are concerned?

Sven Hofstetter: We have adapted and further developed the high-speed removal systems of the XFT series for the FB one. In the FB one, we have eliminated all “problem zones” that made work unnecessarily difficult or slowed it down: The installation space is generously designed, it can be cleaned out in all four directions, the conversion times have been drastically reduced and expensive peripheral systems are no longer necessary. As a result, performance along the entire process increases enormously, which, by the way, also largely meets the demands of our customers (and all those who would like to become customers), as a survey conducted during the first webinar revealed. The interest is primarily in increasing the process quality in its entirety. The FB one is the answer. Combined with an intelligently integrated cleanout system, the press has an overall line effectiveness that I would describe without hesitation as state-of-the-art.

Newsroom: So what are the advantages of a stripping system over other systems, such as blowing out?

Sven Hofstetter: There are several advantages: First of all, the noise pollution is much lower and the air quality in the surrounding area is massively improved, so the working environment as a whole is much more pleasant and motivating. Separate discharge of slugs and parts means there are no collisions – i.e. no unsightly impact points, and time-consuming sorting operations are a thing of the past. Finally, position-oriented output forms the basis for online processing, which is becoming increasingly common, and last but not least, the high process reliability – blowing out is far more susceptible to faults than a trimming system – guarantees a very high output. A clear win on points!

Newsroom: Can you provide us with some figures to illustrate this?

Sven Hofstetter: Sure, I’ll start at the bottom. The first important number is zero. And that’s when it comes to the number of damaged parts, because there won’t be any. There are also very exciting figures regarding the development of stroke rates over the past two decades: Whereas at the turn of the millennium 30 strokes per minute was still the highest of feelings, today we achieve up to 150 strokes on an XFT1500 – part removal included. Taking the example of a 16-cavity mold for chain link plates, this results in a theoretical output of 144,000 parts per hour.

Detailed information about the FB one