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The four major process stamping industries are developing vigorously. In order to adapt to the ever-increasing output, various automated production lines have emerged, and different production methods have been given to them according to the characteristic requirements of the products. Common stamping automation production lines are classified as follows: progressive die stamping, multi-station stamping, and tandem stamping. Because of their respective characteristics, they are used to produce different automotive sheet metal parts. With their unique advantages, they play a huge role in automotive automation and high-efficiency production systems.

Today, we compare and analyze the respective characteristics of these three stamping automated production lines, and explain the selection methods of the production lines based on their characteristics, so that companies can combine their own parts and make reference for the selection of automatic production lines.

Selection Factors of Stamping Automation Production Line

Generally, consider the following factors to select the type of stamping production line:

1. Product material: Including material type, forming performance, hardness, etc., to measure the selection of coils or blanks.
2. Material thickness: Consider the tonnage of the punch and the matching form of the feeding mechanism in conjunction with the material.
3. Monthly supply and demand: Evaluate the production capacity, determine the production cycle, and weigh the types of automatic lines.
4. The size of the stamping product and the degree of difficulty of modeling: through modeling complexity and product quality requirements standards, comprehensive consideration of mold design methods and corresponding stamping automated production methods.

Common Types of Stamping Automated Production Lines

Progressive die stamping production line

The automatic progressive die stamping production line is a production line that uses progressive die stamping, which is generally composed of an uncoiling feeder, a punch, a progressive die, and an automatic blanking line. Realize the automatic process of unwinding the coil, flattening the strip, oiling the strip, stamping it into parts, and collecting finished parts off the line.

The important part is the progressive die, which is composed of multiple stations, up to more than 20 stations. Each station is connected in order to complete different processing contents, generally in order of punching, trimming, flanging, shaping, blanking, etc. A series of different processing contents are completed in one stroke of the punch. After one stroke is completed, the feeder moves the material belt in the downward direction at a fixed step, so that multiple processes can be processed simultaneously in a reciprocating punch of a punch, as shown in the figure below.

The production cycle of the progressive die stamping automated production line is relatively high, generally up to 30 times/min or more. Features are as follows:

• High production efficiency. Progressive die is a multi-task process die. In a pair of die, it can include various processes such as punching, bending and stretching, and has high productivity. Progressive die layout process, as shown in Figure 1-3.

• Easy to automate. Automatic operation can be realized from loading, feeding, processing and loading, thereby reducing labor costs, improving production efficiency, and preventing abnormalities caused by inconsistencies in manual operations.
• It can be produced by high-speed punching machine. According to the product status, high-speed punch can be considered to achieve higher production efficiency.
• Safe operation. The progressive punching equipment has safety doors, so that the work can improve the utilization rate of materials. The work area is separated from the personnel operation area to form a relatively closed work area, which provides a safety guarantee for high-speed production. Traditional tandem production lines can achieve higher production efficiency.
• Save the area of production plant. A punching machine constitutes the processing part of a production line, which can complete the production of a product, has a small area, and simplifies the transportation state detection of the bottom material and semi-finished products, and has high safety.
• The material utilization rate is not high. In order to ensure the continuity and requirements of the material belt, in order to ensure the stability of the feed, it is generally necessary to ensure the uniform distribution of the process content of each process state, and sometimes a part of the material is sacrificed, so that a high material utilization rate cannot be achieved.

Multi-station stamping automated production line

A production line with multiple (usually 4 to 5 molds) independent station molds placed on a large-ton punch workbench, using an uncoiling feeder to load materials, using an automatic feeding rod for process parts transfer, and using automatic conveyor belts to collect The offline product is shown in Figure 1-4.

Features are as follows:

• The bottom material can be coil material or blank material, which has great flexibility and is beneficial to improve the utilization rate of materials.
• Using automatic rod feeding, the punching frequency is lower than that of the progressive die production line and higher than the traditional tandem production line, which can achieve higher production efficiency.
• It can add loading and unloading sensors, double-material detection, gripping sensors, in-mold sensors, etc., to detect the position and status of the material and the parts in production, with high safety.
• There are high requirements for the feeding height and stamping direction of the molds at each station. In order to ensure the stability of the feeding, it is generally necessary to ensure that the state of each process is consistent.

Tandem stamping automated production line

Multiple punches are arranged in sequence and connected in series to form an automated production line. A pair of molds (that is, a process in the production process) is placed on each punch workbench, and the automatic mechanical arm or robot completes the loading, process parts transfer, and unloading and boxing work, as shown in Figure 1-5.

Features are as follows:

• It has a wide range of applications and can be applied to the production of various stamping parts. There is no high requirement for the size, shape and thickness of the stamping parts. It can be applied to the production of large-scale covering parts with great flexibility.
• The production efficiency is low. Due to the use of robotic arms to feed materials, the cycle time cannot be high. Compared with the progressive production line and the multi-station production line, the production efficiency is low.
• Conducive to mold maintenance and debugging. Because each mold belongs to each press, the clamping is independent, and the working parameters are independent. The mold process maintenance and debugging can be carried out independently without affecting each other.l
• Occupies a large area of the production plant. A traditional tandem production line generally includes 4 to 5 punching machines, which occupies a large area.

Selection And Application of Stamping Automation Production Line

Progressive die stamping automated production line: In view of the process characteristics of its various processes distributed on a whole material belt and the higher achievable process strokes, it can be applied to the production of small parts on the car body and can meet a high supply.

• Multi-station stamping automated production line: It can be applied to the rapid production of medium-sized parts, beam parts that are not easily deformed, and symmetrical parts with complex left and right common mold shapes. Products that can be clamped by the gripper on the automatic rod can be applied to The production of this automatic line.
• Tandem stamping automated production line: Because each process is independently distributed to each punch, the production line is the most flexible, suitable for large-scale covering parts with complex production processes, and facilitates the debugging of a single process and independent production, and facilitates the high-quality control of products.
• The selection of each stamping automated production line can be based on two trend directions: high output and high flexibility. For parts with large quantity demand, you can choose an automated production line with high efficiency and high output. If the parts are more complex and require high production technology, a flexible production line can be selected. A simple illustration is shown in Figure 1-6.

With their own characteristics, stamping automated production lines are used in major manufacturing plants, providing a strong guarantee for the development of many industries and the rapid growth of product output. The analysis and understanding of the stamping automation production line facilitate the selection of stamping parts production methods and makes full use of the advantages of their respective automatic lines to serve their respective processing fields.

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