Page 4 - Industrial Technology EXTRA 8th February 2021

AUTOMATION..

A pressing need for automation

Mitsubishi Electric and system integrator AR Controls have provided a winning steel
sheet press automation solution to Unipres, a major player in the automotive industry.

The upgrade allowed the car part manufacturer to significantly increase the uptime,
productivity and energy efficiency of its transfer press, while also empowering
operators to have greater insight and control over the production processes.

n its facility in Sunderland,
Unipres produces around 560
tonnes of steel press-formed
Iautomotive components for
global manufacturers, such as
Nissan and Honda. In order to keep
pace with production demands, the
company needed to upgrade its
factory automation.
The pressed parts are produced
by using a fully automated,
continuous multi-die stamping
process. Metal sheets are placed in a
multi-axis transfer press, where they
are automatically moved across different stations. “The motion control system had become obsolete
Each station uses a specific die to press the object and unreliable. We were experiencing regular
into shape. As the metal sheets go through the failures and had to stop our operations on a daily
various die stations, more details are added to their basis, greatly affecting our uptime and productivity.
design, until they reach their final form. Also, when the control system was encountering
In order to deliver product quality and issues or anomalies, it was impossible to interrogate
consistency, it is necessary to have a reliable, it to get to the root cause of the problem, further
accurate and responsive motion control system in extending unwanted downtime.”
place. After many years of operation, the existing This situation was a major limit to Unipres’
solution at Unipres (a legacy Reliance system) competitiveness. In effect, as an automotive tier 1
couldn’t support the quality and productivity levels supplier, the company is committed to just-in-time
expected by the company. deliveries, which can be compromised by
Gregg Wallace, Senior Supervisor for unexpected downtime. Also, in the case of system
Maintenance & Engineering at Unipres, explains: failure, the company would not be able to access

February 2021 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p4