Technology to transform metal forming and cutting

January 9, 2020 2:22 pm

Industry leaders talk about taking correct measures to deliver quality output and process throughout the production cycle in tooling, metal cutting and metal forming sector.

Among all the different sectors of the manufacturing industry, the sheet metal forming and machine tooling and cutting sectors are integral to the industry, as their applications in other sectors and industries spread far and wide. They form an important step in the manufacturing processes of various products, including automotive, construction, heavy engineering, industrial machinery, aerospace, defence and so on. As IMTEX celebrates these sectors in its latest edition that will be held from 23rd to 28th January 2020, we take a look at how these sectors are coping with the current challenges in the manufacturing industry, while utilising the upcoming opportunities to their advantage. We also take a look at the new innovations occurring in this space.

Sheet metal forming
The sheet metal forming process transforms the flat metal sheet to desired final product in one or more stages of forming operations, depending on part complexity using transfer and progressive dies.

The phases involved in sheet metal manufacturing include:

• Product Design: Checking early manufacturing feasibility using one-step analysis
• Costing: Blank nesting for cost reduction
• Die Engineering: Die surface development, validation using incremental analysis for forming, drawing, spring-back analysis, die compensation, die structure analysis and die optimisation for weight reduction
• Tryout & Production: Design of experiment, process optimisation for robust manufacturing process
  Sheet metal forming with varying properties and shapes are in great demand in various industries. However, it is a costly and time-consuming process, which makes it difficult for small manufacturers to complete this process at a low cost. In an era when staying lean and profitable is the norm, it is crucial for sheet metal manufacturers to deliver products at low costs while not compromising on quality.

Machining and tooling
The machining and tooling sector, too, plays an important role in manufacturing. Efficient technologies used in this sector can make or break a company’s profitability. The right tools and machines can improve speed of operations, lower cost, contribute to optimal resource utilisation and thus affect the company’s bottom-line.

The sheet metal manufacturing industry is a key segment within the metal and tooling industry. To survive in the current demanding sheet metal manufacturing market, reducing the production cost by controlling the process and tool designing is essential. One of the key ways to achieve this is to reduce the scrap by improving material utilisation, as it would reduce the production cost considerably.

Status quo
Although the manufacturing industry in India, primarily the automotive industry, is experiencing a slowdown, the sheet metal manufacturing and metal and tooling sectors cater to other industry segments such as heavy engineering, industrial machinery, power and energy and many more. Abhijit Kulkarni, Regional Manager Technical, North and West Region, DesignTech Systems Pvt. Ltd., says, “The other industries in India are still doing relatively good. So while there are challenges in the domestic manufacturing segment, the sheet metal industry may still do well. Since they are not dependent on just one industry segment, i.e., automotive industry, and supply to other industry verticals as well, they are a little more insulated than the companies engaged predominantly in automotive manufacturing.”

He adds, “As per the data presented by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association on their website, machine tool exports from India have reached `355 crore during 2017–18 compared to `360 crore during 2016–17, registering an annual y-o-y growth decline rate of -1.4 percent. Metal cutting machine exports from India have reached `292 crore during 2017–18 compared to `297 crore during 2016–17, registering a y-o-y growth decline of -2 percent; while the metal forming machine exports from India remained at `63 crore during both 2017–18 and 2016–17. However, there is a good potential in the manufacturing industry for metal forming, as now OEMs are shifting to the high strength and lightweight material, DP grade. There is lot of demand for that from domestic as well foreign OEMs. The length and strength of these materials have been increased, which is encouraging Indian sheet metal suppliers to develop the capability to manufacture these parts. Many Indian sheet metal suppliers have developed this capability by doing virtual simulation and tryouts to meet the current industry needs.”

Technology to the rescue
Kulkarni states, “Precise sheet metal forming actually determines the quality of the output or product. There are sheet metal forming analysis technologies that can help companies achieve quality output with minimum wastage.” He adds, “Today, companies have to embrace modern and advanced technologies that can help them do away with the traditional time-consuming and iterative processes, and replace them with approaches that can significantly contribute in reducing the development time and costs. With the shrinking time-to-market cycle of OEMs, suppliers are also under pressure to perform and deliver within stringent timelines, without compromising on quality. The same is applicable for the sheet metal manufacturing industry.”

Today, the modern technologies have evolved to an extent wherein the companies engaged in metal cutting and forming applications can now ensure maximum efficiency through compressed production time, minimum costs of development, and highest accuracy in their developing metal workpieces.

Some of the modern-day tools in metal formability analysis can address the most typical and challenging work areas such as:

• Blank Development: It includes nesting operations for efficient and most optimum use of material, thereby leading to cost-effectiveness.
• Feasibility Analysis: It helps define the “manufacturability” of the sheet metal component for predicting failure or wrinkles on the component level.
• Accurate die design: It helps in designing optimum die surface design for further validation of sheet metal forming.
• Identifying wrinkles or tearing in the sheet metal
• Stamping Analysis: It helps determine the number of stamping stages required for deep drawing components.
• Spring-back analysis and die compensation to get the desired output in terms of dimensions as per the actual component
• Bending or crash forming development
• Multi-stage simulation or elimination of stage if required for optimum forming/drawing process

Such tools can address some of the biggest pain areas of metal forming, including predicting failure, wrinkles, spring-back reaction, to material saving through blank nesting analysis. This can help companies save material, compress development time and expenses, while augmenting production quality. By incorporating forming analysis upfront, companies can save time and cost of tooling development. The quality of manufactured tools and parts improve as the iterative reworking gets reduced drastically.

A streamlined sheet metal stamping simulation software will thus help companies to:

• Design better products with early check for forming feasibility
• Reduce scraps and improve material utilisation
• Improve productivity with accurate formability analysis
• Optimise the process through single- and multi-stage virtual tryout

Laser applications are another important technology that is being used in the metal cutting industry. Laser cutting technologies can speed up the cutting process, while lowering costs significantly. According to Prashant Chaturvedi, Messer Cutting Systems India Private Limited, “Laser applications are sustainably increasing in lower thickness steel cutting, which also makes it certain that the laser market is poised for further growth in coming years.”

Use of automation and IoT
Advanced industry automation, leading up to smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 backed by Industrial IoT (IIoT), is the next big trend in industrialisation. Kulkarni says that IIoT helps companies predict machine performance issues and failures in advance, which can help companies reduce their downtime and thus achieve highest possible productivity. Advanced automation of systems and processes ensures that the operations and workings on the factory floor are carried out smoothly and seamlessly with minimum to nil human intervention. Industry 4.0 is an approach wherein all the systems on the factory floor will interact with each other through machine-to-machine interaction and collaboration, and carry out operations without any human intervention. It will be backed by Industrial IoT.

He adds, “Human involvement would be limited to defining the preset protocols or logics, within which the machines have the flexibility to make adjustments, corrections or troubleshoot themselves to carry out the operations. These operations and processes would be completely automated, thus digitalising the entire management of the factories. This is smart manufacturing.”

Automation and IoT give fabricators and manufacturers extra control over the sheet metal processing. Explaining this, Maulik Patel, Executive Director, SLTL Group, says, “With changing dynamics of the manufacturing industries, we at SLTL Group work rigorously to integrate advanced automation and IoT to increase the per sheet productivity by monitoring the processes very closely. With IoT, we are giving owners of our Laser Systems the power to oversee their machine and use the technology to increase their productivity, while maintaining the superior quality and keeping the cost down, which is the prime-time market demand. We are focused on listening to customers and understanding their main concerns. Thereafter, we prioritise the key areas and try to solve the problem using our industry-leading technology. We are consumed in creating a future where using these technologies is as easy as using an appliance to get unprecedented quality and productivity.”

He adds, “Sheet metal processing is one of the key aspects of the manufacturing industry, and when we invented fibre laser cutting for sheet metal, we took the standards to a whole new level. Larger industries are under immense pressure from the market to process sheet metal with lower prices and uncompromised quality. The domestic market is currently struggling and as a leading name, we think it’s our responsibility to give market options to continue operations and let it thrive. This year, our team worked closely with fabricators to figure out their core needs and worked to develop Laser Systems with the same quality at a practical price.”

Final note
With such key players innovating and steering the industry to progress, there is no doubt that the sheet metal forming and machine tooling and cutting sectors will continue to grow and thrive. It is only a matter of time before the manufacturing industry as a whole adopts these smart technologies. As Kulkarni says, in the days to come, the metal and tooling industry too would be automated and digitalised in keeping with the trend of smart manufacturing. This will ensure strict check and conformance to quality, processes, and throughput, and as a result enhance the overall quality of the output and productivity of these sectors.

Laser applications are sustainably increasing in lower thickness steel cutting, which also makes it certain that the laser market is poised for further growth in coming years.
Prashant Chaturvedi, Messer Cutting Systems India Private Limited

Today, companies have to embrace modern and advanced technologies that can help them do away with the traditional time-consuming and iterative processes, and replace them with approaches that can significantly contribute in reducing the development time and costs.
Abhijit Kulkarni, Regional Manager Technical, North and West Region, DesignTech Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Larger industries are under immense pressure from the market to process sheet metal with lower prices and uncompromised quality.
Maulik Patel, Executive Director, SLTL Group