EE026

The Design and Benefits of a Thermally Stable Container

Ken Chien, Castool Tooling Systems, Canada; Bill Dixon, QED Extrusion Developments, USA; Paul Robbins, Castool Tooling Systems, Canada; Chris Jowett, Rio Tinto Aluminum, Canada

The paper addresses how the thermal and mechanical design of a container influences liner bore temperatures, billet skin inflow and tooling life. To help better understand container performance, modeling is presented for various container designs and heating concepts. Based on the data, the paper describes how heating elements and thermocouple configurations along with best design and operating practices can achieve thermal stabilization. This contributes to both improved mechanical and thermal container performance, leading to extended container life and reduced process scrap. In addition, by better controlled billet flow into the die, extrusion surface defect issues and run out variation is reduced, as well as improved extrusion dimensional consistency. This drives optimization and increased productivity.

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EE027

Today's Understanding of the Function and Benefits of Dummy Block Design

Paul Robbins, Castool Tooling Systems, Canada; Bill Dixon, QED Extrusion Developments, USA; Ken Chein, Castool Tooling Systems, Canada; Chris Jowett, Rio Tinto Aluminum, Canada

The paper reviews the development of the dummy block from the early days of the loose pad to todays high pressure, quick expansion fixed version. Residual aluminum skin thickness measurements taken on containers from production presses, supported by finite element analysis of deflections of both dummy block and container under typical temperature and pressure distributions, are presented. The impact of temperature and pressure is discussed in relation to the functioning of the container and block, both when performing as intended and when acting out of harmony. The paper concludes with a discussion section that establishes the design and best operating practices to maximize block life and minimize the deleterious effects of trapped air and back end defect and coring.

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EE030

HybrEx® - An Innovative Extrusion Press with Hybrid Drive Technology

Axel Bauer, SMS GmbH, Germany

The new established HybrEx extrusion press sets new remarkable benchmarks. Radical new approaches are reducing the hydraulic drive of the extrusion press, minimizing energy consumption, increasing the productivity and implicating an unmatched dynamic to the extrusion process. While developments in earlier years were focusing mainly on optimization of the extrusion technology, these recent development steps are targeting increased energy efficiency and productivity. A hybrid drive concept with highly dynamic servo drives for fast movements, a new unique hydraulic design combined with the novel HMI-system with joystick controls are the highlights of the HybrEx press. An eye-catching integrated housing, which includes also a safety concept, brings contemporary industrial design into the press shop while PICOS-TO-GO, which allows for online-monitoring of the extrusion press by mobile devices, comes along with a smart platform-independent browser based application.

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EE050

Eco+Logic 2.0 - Saving Energy at the Extrusion Press

Davide Turla and Alessandro Guerrini, Turla srl, Italy

Energy consumption is a driving factor to choose any industrial system. Turla Eco+logic 2.0 optimizes press energy consumption. It overturns the scenario of press hydraulics, consisting of: 1) Variable flow pumps: Pumps AC motors rotate at the same RPM, they can be ON or OFF, without variation. The oil flow varies through expensive variable flow piston pumps controlled by proportional valves. 2) Main pumps with frequency inverter: Main pumps, in this case, are still piston type but no variable flow, driven by servomotors which vary RPM to vary oil flow. Eco+logic 2.0 gives following advantages: No auxiliary pumps required; Pumps are identical; Lower noise; Simplified hydraulics; Less oil heating, less cooling energy, longer oil life; Little energy to reach peak pressure; Compact pumps, one third of piston pumps. It uses gear pumps, used in many industries, including petrol, and working with a pressure of 350-420 bars. In Eco+logic 2.0, maximum working pressure never exceeds 250 bars. Servomotors control pumps speed and change oil flow. Highest pressure happens is at 400 RPM. Only necessary quantity of pumps is switched on, at the necessary RPM.

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EE055

Temperature Measuring Set Up at Heat Treatment Furnaces Used for Aerospace or Automotive Products

Dirk Menzler, HTAix, Germany

Heat treatment furnaces for solution annealing or Aging of extruded products used in aerospace or automotive applications have to fulfill special requirements for instrumentation, documentation, operation and maintenance. These are described and specified in certain SAE Aerospace Material Specifications, National Aerospace Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP) programs and processes established by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). While such procedures are not new to suppliers to the aerospace industry, they meanwhile have also caught the attention of the automotive industry, especially since the use of aluminum alloys for structural or safety related components has increased significantly and become common for high volume automobiles too. Although the implementation of all the requirements does increase the equipment investment and operating cost, it will lead to more reliable and reproducible processes including proof to the customers. Not only new equipment can be designed accordingly, existing equipment also can be made suitable by upgrading. With a focus on pyrometry for proper temperature control, the paper introduces the main requirements for such heat treatment furnaces based on the applicable documents and describes how tight temperature tolerances in the furnace atmosphere as well as the product can be achieved, measured and maintained.

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EE061

Smart Container - Reduced Energy Consumption and Optimal Temperature Distribution in Extrusion Containers

Christian Eckenbach, Marx GmbH & Co. KG, Germany          

During the refurbishment of old heating systems, deployment of new container heating offers excellent opportunities to reduce energy consumption. State-of-the-art heating systems have obvious advantages compared to older generations. A simple upgrade to new resistance heating has enormous savings and improvement potential. All of the influencing parameters have to be precisely aligned with each other to ensure optimal temperature distribution in the container and keep energy consumption to a minimum. Heating system design, particularly configuration of the heating zones and thermocouples, is vitally important. These factors have to be defined before the optimal container temperature can be set using an intelligent control system to produce the desired product quality, maximize the service life of the container and minimize energy consumption. This presentation describes the basic aspects which have to be taken into consideration during the engineering calculation phase, design and realization of Smart Container systems to take maximum advantage of state-of-the-art heating systems.

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EE075

Servo Drive Applications in Aluminum Profile Extrusion Equipment

Jürgen Sturm and Jaume Amoros, TECALEX, Spain

Servo drive systems are replacing more and more conventional AC or hydraulic drives in industrial processes. Currently, servo drives are state-of-the-art in CNC machining and factory automation. Their main advantages have resulted in a recent trend in extrusion equipment design to integrate servo systems mainly in press feeding, puller and saws in order to eliminate conventional hydraulic or AC motors. A key characteristic of servo drives is the addition of motor feedback allowing for a precise process control. A servo drive receives a command signal from a control system and produces motion defined by velocity, torque or position. A sensor attached to the servo motor reports the drive’s actual status back to the PLC control system in order to avoid any deviation from the commanded status. Another advantage of servo drives is the option to design a custom made rotor allowing for direct drive of the machine tool or part without necessity of transmission belts. Based on several practical examples, the use of rotary and linear servo drive systems in extrusion processes will be explained. The process control, maintenance and energy saving advantages of servo drives over conventional AC or hydraulic systems will be analyzed.

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EE084

Interactive Automation and Data Handling in Extruder Plants

Christian Schwarz, Höfer Metall Technik, Germany; and Madhukar Pandit, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

An interactive process control and database system is presented. In ET 12 aspects of extruder automation based on process control were presented. In the present paper, the supplementing of the automation by an iterative learning database system for achieving production optimisation and increased robustness of the extrusion process is described. The data base system provides for the saving of the optimal settings besides of other data in conjunction with the product attributes for each extruded product into a database. Continuous updating of the data ensures that optimal settings for a large range of products are saved into the database. By interactive operation of the automation and the database systems initial settings of the extruder after a die change are automatically retrieved or estimated using a suitable algorithm respectively for repeated or new orders using the data. Alternatively, the data base system is used also in situations in which the extrusion process is optimized by an experienced operator. The know-how of the expert operator is captured into the database system and used by the not-so experienced operators to ensure uniformly high product quality. The structure of the database system and its implementation and use at Höfer Metalltechnik are presented.

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EE091

Payback of Extrusion Lines Upgrading

Bruno Mancini, Cometal Engineering SpA, Italy

Currently, a considerable part of investments are dedicated to the upgrading of existing extrusion lines, to increase efficiency and productivity, to reduce manual labor and to optimize energy consumption. The different areas are typically:

• Furnaces: increase productivity and reduce energy consumption

• Log Shear/Saw vs. precut billet: reduce scrap, increase productivity optimizing billet length

• Press: transformation of traditional presses into short stroke type, in order to increase billet length. Upgrading of the hydraulic circuit and automation, to limit energy consumption and to reduce cycle time

• Quenching: enhancement of cooling capacity at press exit, to increase extrusion speed

• Press exit: transformation of the runout from fixed saw into flying cut, reducing scrap

• Stretching: full automatic cycle
• Stacking: installation of automatic stackers, reducing staff and scrap and increasing productivity
• Aging Loading/unloading: installation of automatic cranes and/or baskets stacker/destacker
• Packaging line: installation of full automatic lines.

The presentation addresses all these issues, not only based on the experiences of Cometal Engineering, as an equipment supplier, but also on those of different extruders, and it shows a real profit & loss balance for each of the issues, justifying the feasibility and its payback.

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EE110

Productivity Increase of Extrusion Line by Equipment Upgrade

Gaspar Fernandez, GIA Clecim Press, Spain

With over 100 years’ experience in manufacturing extrusion equipment, GIA Clecim Press is one of the leading companies to provide engineering solutions to extruders. GIA Clecim Press is pursuing the tradition of extrusion equipment developed over the years by Loewy, Morane Somua, Secim and Clecim. All this experience allows GIA Clecim Press to continuously develop engineering solutions for the extrusion industry of aluminum alloys. The paper presents a major project carried out at an American operation. The project consists of a great upgrade of the extrusion line equipment; new or modified equipment allows a higher productivity output. This paper shows all the modifications made to the plant and how they affect production, recovery rate and downtime.

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EE119

Analysis and Modification of a Prematurely Fractured Container Shifting Rod

Wilson Davidson, SAPA Precision Tubing North America; and Pawel Kazanowski, SAPA Precision Tubing Technology Center, USA

In the aluminum extrusion industry, the extrusion press is the highest investment made for production of extruded product. It is essential that all of its components are properly designed to withstand the applied loads. When a failure occurs it must be investigated thoroughly to avoid a reoccurrence. In this paper we use fracture face analysis to determine the events that lead to a container shifting rod failure. The fracture face analysis showed a fatigue failure at the beginning of a thread. This is unusual as the container shifting rod, under normal conditions, only sees compressive and tensile loads in the axial direction, not bending moments. After interviewing operators and maintenance personnel it was discovered that the container tilt sensor had been tripped several times during production. Given all the information gathered we concluded that the initial crack and propagation occurred due to a bending moment, which was caused by container tilt. Multiple engineering solutions were recommended, a redesign of the container shifting rod was implemented along with some PLC controls to prevent the reoccurrence of the failure.

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EE131

Laser Tracker Measurement Technology for the Alignment, Correction, Condition Monitoring, and Refurbishment of Extrusion Presses

Joseph Mulder, ADS - Advanced Dimensional Solutions Pty Ltd, Australia

Advanced Dimensional Solutions (ADS) supplies Dimensional Measurement and Analysis Services to industry using modern three-dimensional (3D) measurement technology. Extrusion Press Alignment Services is a specialty provided by ADS for more than 18 years and is being reviewed to show appropriate perspective and advancements. These include specific dimensional aspects and outcomes, as well as the benefits of a turnkey project approach that offers added value by combining the specializations of Measurement & Alignment and Mechanical Extrusion Consultant to enable press assessment, corrective action in the ongoing improvement process to be made with participation by extruders own technical people. In addition to the standard press alignment, ADS also provides assistance with:

• Main Cylinder & Ram Replacement

• Full Press Dismantle and Reassembly

• Tie Rod replacement, pre-tensioning and adjustment (including enclosed rods)

• Foundation levelling, re-establishment, regrouting

• Platen and guide/way deflection monitoring.

Some examples of these are presented with alignment aspects and procedures highlighted. Various aspects on the refurbishment of some older presses compared with more modern lighter presses sourced from low cost countries are explored.

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EE142

ePuller - New Developments in Extrusion Puller Technology               

Giulia Bertoli, OMAV SpA, Italy; Adam Cramlet, Alexandria Industries, USA; and Carsten Dede, OMAV North America LLC, USA

Traditional puller systems require hydraulic systems to execute the primary puller motions: Jaw actuation and puller arm movements. This design has been a standard for decades with little innovation to basic concept to use an onboard hydraulic tank with pump and valves. New advances in electro servo motor technology are making it now possible to completely eliminate the need for hydraulics on board of a puller. This greatly improves maintenance reliability, but it also enhances puller performance by making the overall system lighter and more responsive. The first generation of these ePuller systems has now been installed and successfully phased into production. This paper discusses the design challenges converting from a hydraulic puller system to an electric Puller (ePuller). Puller performance data is compared and puller acceleration and speed curves are analyzed.

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EE147

Aging of Large Extrusions with Automated Handling

Dirk Menzler, HTAix, Germany; and Peter Ohlsson, IUT Industriell Ugnsteknik Sweden AB, Sweden

The transportation market asks for wide aluminum extrusions of finish length in the range of 30 meters to be used, e.g in train wagon bodies or truck trailers. Downstream at the run-out table of the extrusion press and the finish saw, these large extrusions have to be aged and packed. Size and weight of the extrusions, as well as surface quality requirements, ask for an automated handling upstream and downstream of the Aging ovens, which is interacting with the oven charging system. The Aging ovens shall consume as little floor space and energy as possible, provide tight temperature tolerances during the whole Aging cycle and offer high flexibility for changing production conditions. The paper introduces the latest Aging technology, including automated handling of large aluminum extrusions based on an installation which had been successfully started up in 2014 in a leading Chinese extrusion plant. The equipment features two bottom loaded Aging ovens for 30-meter-long extrusions which can be divided into three smaller chambers each for Aging of standard length extrusions and an automated trolley system, which serves for plant internal transport as well as charging of the ovens.

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EE158

Experiences in Manufacturing of Containers and Stems for the Extrusion of Aluminum

Guenter Zeiler, Volker Wieser, Robert Hoefer, and Hannes Konrad, Bohler Edelstahl GmbH & Co KG, Austria

Extrusion tools, such as containers and stems, are expensive components and it is important to use the most suitable materials. However, it has to be pointed out, that not only the chemical composition of the applied materials determines the lifetime of these tools, but also melting and forging techniques as well as heat treatment have an essential impact. For many years Böhler Special Steel Open Die Forge is a supplier of forged high quality components for the extrusion industry, e.g. mantels, liner, liner holder, stems and accessories for containers. Our material knowledge at Böhler Edelstahl covers all tool steel and high speed steel applications as well as special materials for power generation, aerospace, automotive, oil & gas and engineering with all possible interactions. This paper reports about experiences and research activities in the fabrication of forged components for containers and stems for Aluminumaluminum extrusion up to achieved mechanical properties, NDT results, heating and FEM modelling of stress distributions in the container during the extrusion process in order to optimize and predict the lifetime of these components. From the material side, the focus is set on the classical steels of the 5% Cr class up to the high alloyed and sophisticated Maraging steels for stem application, mainly in indirect extrusion processes, with highest compressive stresses required.

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EE161

Billet Heating Options for Isothermal Extrusion

Günter Valder and Jan van Treek, OTTO JUNKER GmbH, Germany

Last year Otto Junker developed the first taper quench. The taper quench offers the temperature accuracy of a modern induction heater and the advantages of the quench process. As a basic heater, a modern-type gas furnace heats the billet to approximately 400°C. A state-of-the-art induction heater heats the billet to a temperature close to solidus temperature to dilute coarse Mg2Si-particles. In the next step, the billet is taper-cooled to extrusion temperature.

This equipment offers the following advantages:

• Efficiency of the gas-fired billet heater of more than 70%

• Latest induction technology with IGBT for stable and efficient final heating

• Controlled cooling process from almost solidus temperature to extrusion temperature.

Results after more than one year of operation:

• Throughput rate +10%

• Increased tensile strength.

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EE184

Review of Proper Bolting Practices - Applying Torque or Tension to a Bolted Connection

James Cunningham, Cunningham Mechanical Design, Inc., USA

We will present a discussion about proper bolt torque and tension practices. This discussion will cover the differences between bolt torque and tension, types and grades of bolts, bolt torque patterns, how proper bolt torque is determined, the coefficient of friction when applying torque, and use of lubricants to reduce the coefficient of friction. We intend to bring and display various bolt torque tooling and explain how to properly use the correct tools and care for them. This section of the discussion will include explaining standard torque wrenches, torque multipliers, hydraulic torque wrenches, pneumatic torque wrenches, and torque screwdrivers. The discussion will include proper use of the reaction arms that are required for high torque applications, including a brief discussion on safety when using torque tools. Furthermore, we will review the press and press line bolting applications where proper torque is critical and how to achieve proper bolt torque on those specific applications, including stem mounting, pipe connections, valve and manifold connections, applications on vibrating and moving equipment, and control wiring terminals. Finally, we will identify areas where bolt torque is not to be applied and appropriate preventative maintenance schedules to check for proper torque.

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EE203

Energy Saving in Extrusion Presses - Latest Developments

Marco Schreiber, Giovanni Sacristani, Giorgio Gullotta, and Paolo Fraternale, Danieli Breda, Italy

For many decades, the Danieli Group has ranked as a front-runner in the development of "green" solutions in the metals industry, investing significantly in R&D for the design and discovery of new technologies and the optimization of existing ones in order to maximize environmental responsibility and energy efficiency and minimize energy consumption.
Why? The environment and people's health on the one hand, the customers' profit and OPEX on the other.

Breda holds a leadership position in the group when dealing with efficiency in electro-hydraulic systems, developed over the last years.

Recently renewed awareness in energy-efficiency has been dictated by the trend in the US Automotive industry motivating end-users to become more careful and demanding as far as this topic is concerned. However, fully understanding the actual strengths and weaknesses of the different solutions offered by the market is not always easy since safety, CAPEX, productivity, maintenance and equipment reliability also need to be considered

This present article, will recount a comparative study of different state-of-the-art driving solutions for extrusion presses, a wide range of crucial aspects shall be taken into consideration and how specific requests made by the final user can bring about different strategic choices when investing in a new extrusion press or when revamping an existing one shall also be investigated.

Danieli Breda, with over 60 years' experience in extrusion technology, is the right partner to guide end users throughout the analysis of their specific needs and achieve the best-fit solution to improve energy efficiency and gain potential cost advantages.


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