Hand Press with Force Monitoring

Leveraging over 30 years of industry expertise, A-Tech Instruments Ltd. offers Plug and Play manual arbor presses with integrated process monitoring, designed to enhance your manufacturing processes. These presses are equipped with force and distance monitoring, ensuring 100% quality control and offering exceptional precision and repeatability.

Understanding Hand Presses

Hand presses, otherwise known as manual or arbor presses, are utilized heavily in low volume manufacturing for their ability to apply precise force through manual operation. These tools are ideal for applications ranging from assembly to the intricate pressing of delicate components, offering unmatched control and adaptability.

Why Choose Hand Press?

• Direct Control: Operators have immediate control over the force applied, ensuring precision and preventing damage to sensitive parts.
• Versatility: Easily adjustable for different tasks and materials, hand presses are suited for varied manufacturing environments, especially beneficial for short to medium production runs.
• Cost-Effectiveness: These presses operate efficiently without the need for electricity, making them economical and simple to maintain.
• Quality Assurance: Equipped with sophisticated monitoring systems, hand presses ensure that each product is crafted to meet high-quality standards.

The Role of Monitoring in Enhancing Hand Press Operations

Integrating monitoring systems into hand press operations is crucial for achieving high precision and quality in manufacturing. Monitoring provides real-time feedback on the pressing process, allowing for immediate adjustments and ensuring each product meets stringent quality standards. Here’s why incorporating monitoring is essential:

• Enhanced Accuracy: Monitoring systems track the force and displacement during each operation, ensuring that every press is executed with precise control, which is crucial for tasks requiring high accuracy.
• Quality Control: Continuous monitoring allows for the detection of any loose or tight fit parts, which can arise from deviations from acceptable part tolerances, facilitating immediate corrective actions to prevent defects and ensure product quality.
• Operational Efficiency: Real-time data from monitoring systems help optimize pressing processes, reduce waste, and increase throughput, leading to improved overall efficiency.
• Data-Driven Optimization: The data collected through monitoring not only helps in maintaining quality and efficiency but also provides insights for ongoing process improvements and innovation.

At A-Tech Instruments Ltd., we specialize in integrating advanced monitoring solutions into hand presses to provide detailed insights into the pressing process. Our systems utilize cutting-edge sensors to track force and displacement, ensuring that every component is pressed with exact precision.

Advanced Monitoring Features

• Press Force Monitoring & Analysis: Our systems analyze the force applied during the press operation to ensure optimal quality control. By measuring the press-in force, we enable 100% quality checking during assembly, avoiding the traditional destructive methods of quality assessment.
• DIGIFORCE® - Universal Press Monitoring Solutions: This technology offers flexible tools to capture operational signatures, defining pass/fail criteria and quickly providing feedback to the PLC. This ensures that no aspect of operation quality control is left to chance, even in the most automated manufacturing environments.
• Turn-Key Monitoring Solutions: Including sensors, cables, and data collection capabilities, our solutions are designed to be seamlessly integrated into existing setups, enhancing the capabilities of hand presses to meet modern demands.

Impact of Monitoring

With A-Tech's monitoring technologies, manufacturers can achieve:

• Enhanced Precision: Ensure components are joined flawlessly every time, with immediate adjustments made possible through real-time data.
• Ensure Complete Press Stroke: The stroke sensor ensures the operator completes the full press stroke.
• Avoiding Mismatched Components: In Manufacturing processes where many similar parts are being assembled, the Force vs. Displacement curves ensure that only parts with the exact same geometry and surface characteristics pass.
• Reduced Waste: Our systems indicate immediately when there is an error with new components so you can avoid assembling a batch of parts before functional testing is done, thus minimizing material waste and part scrap.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Our comprehensive data collection and analysis tools allow for continuous improvement in press operations, enhancing overall efficiency and productivity.

General Specifications of Hand Press Monitoring Systems

Key Features

Our Plug and Play manual presses with Press Force Signature Analysis are designed with advanced specifications to meet a variety of industrial needs, ensuring robust performance and high-quality results. Here are some of the key features that set our systems apart:

• Force Ranges: Capable of handling forces up to 30 kN, suitable for a wide range of pressing applications.
• Stroke Capacity: Offers strokes up to 120 mm, allowing for versatility in the range of operations, from delicate placements to more substantial transformations.
• Plug and Play System: Easy to install and integrate with existing systems, ensuring minimal downtime and swift setup.
• Comprehensive Signature Analysis: Features complete signature analysis including Limits, Windows, and Envelopes, ensuring detailed quality control and precise operation monitoring.
• Support and Service: Backed by A-Tech Instruments throughout the Americas, providing exemplary support, service, and maintenance to keep your operations running smoothly.
• Unmatched Price for Performance: Our solutions offer unparalleled value, delivering top-tier performance at competitive prices.
• Future-Proof Technology: Designed with the foresight for upgrades, our Digiforce systems can be enhanced to automated Pneumatic and Hydraulic systems with modern interfaces like EthernetIP, ProfiNET, etc., ensuring long-term relevance and adaptability.

Types of Manual Press

At A-Tech Instruments Ltd., we offer two primary types of manual presses: toggle presses and rack and pinion presses. Each type is designed to meet specific operational needs, ensuring that all aspects of your pressing requirements are covered with precision and efficiency.

Toggle Presses

Toggle presses are known for their ability to deliver high force at the end of the stroke, making them ideal for applications that require a significant final force to secure components. This feature is particularly useful for tasks such as riveting, crimping, and joining operations where the peak force is critical at the stroke’s completion. The mechanical advantage of a toggle press increases as it reaches the end of its cycle, providing maximum force with minimal effort from the operator

Rack and Pinion Presses

Rack and pinion presses offer a consistent force throughout the stroke, which is perfect for applications requiring uniform pressure for assembly operations. This type of press operates with a straightforward mechanism where the rotation of a pinion moves a rack to apply force directly and evenly. Ideal for pressing, bending, and forming operations, rack and pinion presses provide excellent control and repeatability, ensuring that each operation can be conducted with consistent pressure from start to finish.

Streamlined Data Acquisition

Our Press Monitoring Solutions feature built-in signal conditioning, also known as amplification, essential for accurately processing data from a range of sensors. These systems are compatible with Strain Gauges, Piezoelectric Force Sensors, Potentiometers, Voltage Output Sensors, SSI Serial, and Encoders, offering the adaptability required for various manufacturing applications.

Equipped with a 16-bit resolution and capable of high accuracy, our monitoring systems can perform scans at speeds up to 20 kHz. This level of detail is particularly crucial in high-demand settings like stamping presses, where precise and timely data collection is key to maintaining quality and efficiency.

Active measurements are triggered by changes in displacement or load levels, leading to synchronized X&Y pair measurements. This process not only captures comprehensive data about each press operation but also enables real-time monitoring and adjustments. Switch Points, which are critical real-time signals within the system, alert the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) if measurements exceed or fall below-established thresholds. This immediate feedback allows for swift corrections, ensuring each press operation is executed with optimal accuracy and consistency.

Advanced Evaluation Techniques

After data acquisition, our press monitoring systems move to the crucial evaluation phase. This step is vital for ensuring each press operation meets quality standards. The system analyzes measurement curves, categorizing parts as GOOD (OK) or BAD (NOK) based on predefined criteria. Results are immediately sent to the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for real-time feedback, allowing for prompt corrective actions when needed.

Because no two press operations are exactly alike, our systems are designed to adapt to slight variations while still meeting quality specifications. This flexibility helps maintain high standards without unnecessarily rejecting good parts, optimizing both efficiency and accuracy.

In addition to the traditional evaluation windows or boxes with defined entry and exit sides, DIGIFORCE® controllers also offer thresholds, trapezoidal windows with both X or Y alignment and tolerance envelopes. These elements include calculated values for local maximums and minimums, area under the curve, bending points, etc., which can then be combined with mathematical operations for greater analysis flexibility.

Traditional Windows

This feature ensures that the measurement curve enters and exits through specific predefined sides of a rectangular window. Operators can set these windows to allow one or multiple entries and exits. If the curve deviates from the rules, the system instantly updates the PLC, providing immediate feedback to maintain continuous quality control.

Trapezoidal Windows

These windows set evaluation criteria along sloped portions of the measurement curve. This capability is particularly useful for applications where force dynamics change progressively, such as forming or bending operations. They facilitate easy criteria generation for sloped segments, providing greater flexibility in assessing complex operations.

Dynamic Thresholds

These serve as essential checkpoints in the evaluation process, establishing minimum and maximum bounds that the measurement curve must pass through. This ensures that every press operation meets precise force requirements, preventing both under-pressing and over-pressing. Dynamic thresholds are crucial for maintaining the quality and durability of the assembled parts.

Tolerance Envelopes

This feature allows operators to set custom tolerance ranges on the DIGIFORCE® controllers. By sampling a distribution of press force curves, operators can define a tolerance envelope that specifies allowable deviations from the sample curve. This is particularly important for applications requiring high precision, as it accommodates both tight and loose fits, ensuring that parts are produced consistently within quality specifications.

Automated Data Collection

Our press monitoring solutions include advanced software that not only configures sensor calibration and triggering but also excels in data collection. This comprehensive software provides a full-featured display of measurement curves and is compatible with any Windows-based PC. It can store information from multiple presses, complete with part tracking and timestamps, facilitating easy access and management of collected data. The software also supports program backup and data retrieval, ensuring that all evaluation results and statistics are readily available for analysis and review.

Simple Report Generation

The data review wizard in our software simplifies the process of searching through historical data. Users can filter data by station, part number, serial number, date, time, and OK/NOK results, making it easy to locate specific information. This feature allows for efficient data review and report generation, with output options available in both Excel and PDF formats. This capability ensures that you can generate detailed reports quickly, aiding in quality control and process optimization. These features enhance the usability and effectiveness of our press monitoring systems, providing you with the tools needed to maintain high-quality production standards and improve operational efficiency.

Optional Enhancements for Manual Presses

Enhance the functionality and precision of your manual presses with these optional accessories, designed to meet the specific needs of various applications:

Precision Ram Adjustment (DP)

Allows for fine-tuning directly at the ram, with a scale that reads to 0.02 mm and an adjustment range of ±1.5 mm. This accessory is ideal for tasks requiring precise press depth, such as prototype manufacturing and serial production

Micrometer Stop (MICRO)

Ensures accurate positioning of the tool in rack and pinion presses. It allows the press stroke length to be adjusted to an accuracy of 0.01 mm, making it perfect for high-precision assembly work.

Table Bore (TB)

Enables quick and accurate tool changes. By mounting the bottom part of the tool in the centric table bore and securing it with a transverse screw, setup times are reduced significantly. The alignment accuracy between the ram bore and table bore is less than 0.05 mm, ensuring consistent precision.

Stroke Counter (Z)

A five-digit stroke counter provides a rapid overview of the number of items produced. This counter can be reset, allowing operators to track production counts easily and ensure accurate output records.

Return Travel Lock (HS)

Prevents incomplete operations by blocking the return stroke during the downward motion. This ensures that forming, assembly, and joining operations are fully completed before the lever can return. The Quick-Release mechanism allows for easy removal of jammed parts at any position and resets automatically.

Two-Hand Safeguard for Manual Toggle Presses (H2H)

Enhances safety, especially in mass production or when used by disabled employees. The two-hand safeguard prevents reaching into the ram movement, requiring both hands to be out of the danger zone to operate the press. If activated during the stroke, the press blocks downward movement and can be reset to its starting position.

ERGO-Hand Lever

Improves ergonomics with a horizontal and rotatable hand lever, allowing for easier operation of the press without fully grasping it. This feature increases user comfort and ease of use.

Baseplate

Provides a stable foundation for the press, preventing tilting. Rubber stoppers prevent slipping, and movable threaded inserts adjust to fit the distance between the fixing holes of the press.