Design of an Adjustable Press Die
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Date
2015-12-07
Authors
Marek, Justin
Desrosiers, Sean
Alam, Fahad
Yan, Jiaxin
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Abstract
Sperling Industries performs work in the construction of lattice steel transmission towers. A major component of this operation involves producing bent lengths of steel angles. Their current process involves a cut-and-weld procedure which is both difficult and time consuming. Sperling Industries requested that our design team, HotForm, design a bending solution for steel angle beams which can reduce labour hour requirements. Their low-volume of work in this area necessitates a solution which is flexible in the variety of bends that can be produced. The safety, functionality, and usability of the design are deemed the most critical design needs. Therefore, the objective is to produce a safe, cost effective die press design that allows Sperling Industries to bend a variety of steel angles for the construction of transmission tower. Concept generation was performed to compile various design ideas. Using a decision matrix, a final concept was selected which was rigorously analyzed and rapid prototyped for testing. Testing has shown that the selected concept is feasible. HotForm has met the project objectives by producing an adjustable press die design which can bend steel angles to the desired shape. The design is composed of a base plate, adjustable supports, bottoming die, and top die. The base plate is centered in a 100 ton press and serves as the backbone of the design; it has a central cut-out to accommodate the bottoming die and bolt holes to hold the adjustable supports in place. A top die is fixed to the hydraulic press cylinder and provides the force to bend beams. Beams are bent as simply supported beams with the adjustable supports providing the reaction forces and the top die providing a centralized point load. The bottoming die serves to define the depth of the top die stroke and also prevents flange buckling, a condition where the flanges deform laterally. A hydraulic jack allows the position of the bottoming die to be adjusted in-process. Rapid prototyping and testing of the process has shown that acceptable bends can be produced using this method. Testing has shown that using simplified models, the bend angle can be […]