Conference Tracks

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

MORNING
(8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon)		 AFTERNOON
(1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
T1 Advanced Sensors and Control Systems T7 Shop Floor to Top Floor - Traceability and Control
T2 Working with High-Strength Steel T8 Material/Parts Handling
T3 Servo Press Technology T9 High-Strength Steel II
T4 Lean Manufacturing  
T5 Alternative Manufacturing Processes    
T6 Fabricating CANCELLED    

8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Select 1 of 6 concurrent tracks

Track 1: Advanced Sensors & Control Systems

Stay up to date on developments in sensors and controls and, courtesy of case histories, how these products aid productivity in the pressroom.

Analog Sensors: Automatic In-Die Part Quality Measurements
George Keremedjiev, President, Tecknow Education Services, Inc.

  • In-depth tutorial on application of sensors for automatic measurement of part quality within running dies and tooling
  • Numerous examples of dies employing this technology
  • Open Q&A format covers automatic sorting of parts based on dimensions as well as self-adjusting tooling

Growing Your Stamping Company Through Investment in Technology and Advanced Sensor Applications
Jeff Clark, President, Waukesha Tool & Stamping LLC; Gary Rutkowski, Sensor Applications Specialist, Waukesha Tool & Stamping LLC.

  • Covers investment analysis and the decision to commit to technology and advanced sensor applications and advanced sensor program implementation
  • Focuses on methodology to justify the investment and commitment to increase technology in the pressroom and the journey required to be successful with advanced sensor applications
  • Explains the necessary foundation required, the company's cultural shift, skill enhancement and discipline

New Developments in Advanced Sensors & Vision Systems
Dave Fletcher, Industry Specialty-Metal Stamping Industry, Banner Engineering Corp.; Martin Wiegel, President, Wiegel Tool Works, Inc.

  • How wireless sensors are being applied in automation and pressroom applications
  • How technology trends in noncontact sensors can be applied to bring improvements in metalforming processes
  • How vision sensing has been used successfully in metalforming

Case Studies in Advanced Sensors & Controls Applications
Steve Helton, Sensor Applications Specialist, Bachman Machine Co.

  • A case study on in-die closed-loop control using analog part-measurement sensors
  • How a die adjusts in the press during production to manufacture acceptable parts
  • A case study on the implementation of in-die welding
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Track 2: Working with High-Strength Steel

What are these new breeds of steel, how are they processed prior to forming, and what is required from tooling and metalforming equipment to ease part production? Find out in this track.

Straightening & Leveling High-Strength Steel
Bruce Bean, Sales Engineer, Formtek

  • Explores challenges associated with processing high-yield-strength coiled material
  • Explains straightening and leveling
  • Explores differences between straightening and corrective leveling of coiled material

Solutions for the Production of High-Strength-Steel Components
Klaus Rothenhagen, Key Account Manager, Mueller Weingarten AG

  • Use of high-strength steels in the automotive industry
  • Challenges of employing tooling to form high-strength steels
  • Challenges that high-strength steels pose to the entire press-shop environment

Improving Die Performance When Trimming or Forming AHSS Parts
Tom Bell, Vice President Business Development, Bohler-Uddeholm Corp.

  • How chipping, cracking and weldability problems result from using traditional types of tool steels for trimming and forming advanced high-strength steel
  • How alternative materials can solve chipping, cracking and weldability problems
  • How alternative tool steels can improve die performance

Press Hardening: Forming Systems for the Materials of Tomorrow
Jens Aspacher, Senior Product Manager-Hydraulic Presses, Schuler SMG GmbH

  • Challenges of forming high-strength steel
  • Review of available high-strength materials and evolving applications of new materials
  • Equipment requirements for processing press-hardened steel components
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Track 3: Servo Press Technology

Servo presses offer a host of benefits. Technical discussions and case histories describe this emerging technology.

Benefits of Servo-Controlled Mechanical Presses
James Landowski, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Komatsu America Industries LLC

  • Case studies describe piece-part quality benefits of servo-controlled mechanical presses over traditional eccentric- and link-motion presses, with comparisons provided
  • Case studies are supported by videos of progressive-die and transfer applications
  • Updates on the new servo press standard

Servo Press Success Stories
David Stone, Product Manager-Stamping Presses, Amada America, Inc.

  • When a servo press is or is not suitable for an application
  • Review of an application where a servo press was the best solution, including benefits provided
  • Other uses discovered by the customer after it began using servo technology

Effects of Controlled Slide Velocity
John Remington, Sales, The Minster Machine Co.

  • Effects of slide velocity on part quality, tooling and press life
  • How changes in impact loading, snapthrough and vibration can cause large changes in maintenance costs and total cost of ownership of capital equipment
  • Slide velocity as it relates to various press types
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Track 4: Lean Manufacturing

Are you doing lean right? Here's the skinny on how lean manufacturing works and tools now available to make lean work for you.

Cut Out the Fat and Get Lean!
Chris Hoff, Lean Consultant, Value Added Solutions
White Paper (24k pdf)

  • Defines lean and six sigma principles and how worldclass companies use these principles for growth
  • Identifies common pitfalls hindering a lean program from achieving results and how they can be overcome
  • How to implement these principles immediately in your organization

Proper Planning & Organization to Reduce Changeover Time
Gary Zunker, President, Lightning Time Savers

  • Importance of pre-staging for changeover-time reduction
  • Methods and die-change systems available for quick die change
  • Requirements of hourly and salary workforce to reduce out-of-press setup time

Using Intelligent Business Processes to Drive Profitability
Alan Lund, Consulting Principal, UHY Advisors

  • Streamlined systems and processes used to address waste
  • Factors that are re-shaping the business landscape
  • How to manage your 2010 business model beginning today

Lean Manufacturing-The Use of Digital Visualization and Production Planning
Vallury Prabhakar, CEO, AutoForm Engineering USA
White Paper (113k pdf)

  • New software tools bring the ability to pre-define and verify process robustness, which is at the heart of automotive-part production planning
  • This software provides an accurate visualization of quality issues as they relate to variations in production, allowing early optimization of tool and process design
  • Users gain understanding of process variation on part quality and throughput and can determine the best long-term countermeasures
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Track 5: Alternative Manufacturing Processes

Here are the latest developments in heat forming, fineblanking, tubular hydroforming and metal protruding.

Heatforming: A New Freedom in Forming Tubular Structures
Harry Singh, Vice President, Schuler Hydroforming, Inc.

  • Overview of heatforming as an innovative technology that allows greater freedom in part design
  • Process allows formation of unique alloy shapes that, historically only have been possible in glass blowing and blow-molded plastic parts
  • Prototype examples are shown to provide design insight

Why Fineblanking?
Lars Reich, General Manager, Feintool Equipment Corp.

  • Introduction to the fineblanking process
  • Possibilities and limitations in making complex 3D parts via fineblanking
  • Part examples showcase potential savings attributed to employing fineblanking

Hydroforming-A-B-Cs of Tube Forming Utilizing Hydroforming Technology
Terry Higgins, Senior Sales Engineer, Quasar Industries, Rochester Hills, MI

  • How hydroforming is becoming an active area of development in the automotive industry
  • How hydroforming is used to form tubes
  • Advantages it offers as compared to other manufacturing processes

Metal Protruding & Flow Forming
Hans Mehner, President, HM Inc.

  • Overview of metal protruding
  • The process is a form of metal spinning
  • Users can make one-piece rotational symmetrical parts that previously were two- or three-piece welded assemblies
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Track 6: Fabricating CANCELLED

Hexavalent Chromium-The Inside Story
Bob Schumacher, President, Schumacher Consulting

  • Explanation of the OSHA standard covering hexavalent chromium
  • Where Cr+6 is found and some typical exposuresd
  • How this standard affects fabricators and metalformers

Punching Out a Competitive Edge in Short-Run Stamping
Mike Morissette, Product Manager, Trumpf, Inc.

  • How precision punching technology helps stampers meet market demands for smaller volumes and faster turnaround times, especially involving prototypes
  • How this technology creates shorter lead times and greater flexibility, necessary to take on previously unattainable short-run production
  • How the technology reduces setup times and replaces expensive custom-tool production

Material Handling in the Fabricating Process
Peter Stephan, Program Manager, Fanuc Robotics America, Inc.

  • Various conditions in which robots be used for material-handling tasks, with images of successful implementations
  • Use of vision, which has allowed robots to determine part orientation to a much greater extent
  • Possibilities that exist in the manufacturing environment for application of robots
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1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Select 1 of 3 concurrent tracks

Track 7: Shop Floor to Top Floor-Traceability and Control

Knowledge is power, and real-time knowledge is most powerful. Learn how software and other automation solutions can bring shop-floor information to decision-makers' fingertips instantaneously.

Data Collection at the Machine
Jim Finnerty, Product Manager, Wintriss Controls Group of Honeywell

  • Software that enables manufacturers to automatically collect unbiased real-time data from presses and other machinery
  • How the software acts as a vital bridge between production equipment and ERP and MES software-virtually eliminating manual production-data entry
  • How to manage data collection from multiple plant locations, how to use a web browser to display real-time factory status and how to automatically distribute custom reports using existing network and/or e-mail systems

Mistake-Proof the Shop Floor
Brian Gillespie, Vice President Sales, Plexus Systems

  • How to capture shop-floor information by not only automating and integrating controls and equipment but by using lean manufacturing concepts to poke yoke processes
  • Covers press integration, production analysis and SPC/data collection as well as new technology for labeling, traceability, employee control and accountability
  • What types of reports and results your company can expect
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Track 8: Material/Parts Handling

Here's what you need to know about coil processing and blank destacking to move material efficiently.

Latest Technology in Coil Processing Systems
Dean Linders, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Red Bud Industries, Inc.
White Paper (107k pdf)

  • How to produce the best tolerances
  • How to properly measure results
  • The latest technology used to improve efficiency and quality as well as common questions and misconceptions concerning coil-processing systems

Blank Destacker with Coil Capability
James Peteprin, Account Manager, Gudel, Inc.

  • Don't be limited by the material types you can process
  • A destacker capable of processing material from coil and then quickly changing to process blanks is a competitive solution
  • Such a destacker allows the best use of available materials
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Track 9: High-Strength Steel II

An overview of traditional and nontraditional high-strength-steel grades, and how the predictable reduction in formability with strength can be minimized by compensating changes in tool and process parameters.

High-Strength Steel: Are You Ready?
Stuart Keeler, President, Keeler Technologies LLC

  • If you are not already using high-strength steel, your next order may be an unexpected opportunity
  • An overview of traditional and nontraditional high-strength-steel grades
  • How the predictable reduction in formability with strength can be minimized by compensating changes in tool and process parameters