All five ram cylinders and four cushion cylinders can be independently set and controlled in four hydraulic tool-try-out presses delivered by AP and T in Sweden to Horst Matzner in Germany.

All five ram cylinders and four cushion cylinders can be independently set and controlled in four hydraulic tool-try-out presses delivered by AP and T in Sweden to Horst Matzner in Germany. Of the four presses, the ZF-25000, rated at 25MN, is the largest tool tryout press yet supplied by AP and T. The four presses are rated at 4000kN and 12.5, 16 and 25MN.

Each has five ram cylinders and can be set for using one, three, or five cylinders at once, while the four die cushions can be pre-set individually.

Horst Matzner Fertingungstechnik, located in Bissendorf, Germany, recently set up shop to supply press tools to Audi, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, Jaguar, Opel, Rover, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen and Volvo.

Matzner was particularly impressed by the flexibility of the AP and T product, short delivery times, the compactness and low roof height of the presses and close involvement with the customer throughout the project, which commenced with the first project review in late 1999.

The last press, the ZF-25000, was delivered this March.

There are number of aspects of the presses worth noting.

Compactness is achieved by what AP and T call its 'Fishtail' ram guides which keep the press frame together laterally and prevents the ram (or slide in US parlance) and press bed from getting out of line.

FEM (finite element method) has determined frame design, originally determined through dynamic simulation of forces based on FEA data.

The result is a maximum floor height (above the press shop floor) of 9.1m for the 2500kN unit.

The four presses stand in a common pit and each is served by an articulated platform, which lines up with each press bed and so simplifies tool access and changeover.

The ram cylinders can be programmed to operate the centre cylinder only, or a diagonal of the centre cylinder with two corner cylinders, or all five together.

Each of the four cushions can be programmed independently, so off-centre loading of tooling can be simulated under try-out conditions.

Press action control is by a joystick, which controls press speeds at 1 - 9mm/sec.

A button on the joystick dumps pressure from all cylinders.

Press control is based on Siemens S7 PLC system running AP and T's graphical Windows NT-based MC32 user interface.

MC32 gives complete programming freedom, says AP and T, in that all nine hydraulic cylinders can be programmed independently.

Also cylinder operation can be configured sequentially, that is, one cylinder does not act until another has completed its cycle (one imagines stripper and ejector operations, or blankholder operations - Ed).

Horst Matzner also opted for AP and T's service package for modem-based fault-finding.

Each press is equipped with a modem, so when a fault occurs, AP and T1s technicians dial up the modem and perform an initial service within minutes of an error report.

An interesting aside is that the waste heat generated by the hydraulic pumping systems is channelled into Horst Ratzner's factory heating system.