PERF HANDBOOK -Reasons for Calling Your Perforator
Reasons for Calling Your Perforator
A part like the one illustrated calls for punching an array of holes along with several other turret press operations. It's a temptation to do them all in-house because it seems to make sense. But you are likely to have problems and run up costs, instead.
First, to punch that array of holes requires special cluster tooling that not only is expensive but takes time to make. More than that, the tooling you make will be limited in its use to a specific material and a narrow range of thicknesses because of clearance requirements between the male and female tool components. If the type and thickness of the material for the part changes, new tooling will be needed.
Second, punching all of those holes with a cluster tool, just as the name implies, permits punching just a small "cluster" of holes with each stroke of the press. The machine time required to make those holes very expensive, indeed.
Third, maintaining accuracy in the placement of the holes and uniformity in their spacing will prove difficult because of the distortion in the work piece that occurs with every press stroke.
Fourth, when the part comes out of the punching process, it will be distorted and need flattening. Without a rollerleveler, you will need to send the part out to be put back in shape. This means even more time and money and, at this point, your Quality Control people may be beginning to hyperventilate along with your cost controller.
Better let your perforating specialist put those holes in for you…or, better yet, make the part completely. Here are some good reasons why.
Your perforating specialist's entire production process is dedicated to perforating metal and its related operations. His is a highly specialized production resource that requires a heavy capital investment in extremely fast and accurate perforating presses surrounded by state-of-the-art peripheral equipment all controlled by well-trained, experienced people. His modern, high-speed electronically controlled presses can make holes as fast as 300,000 per minute, all with extreme accuracy. It's no trick for him to produce patterns that include predetermined blank areas and special margins. The tolerances he can hold are extraordinary.
These capabilities permit designers to lay out patterns of perforations that can be perfectly matched to subsequent manufacturing operations such as bending and joining. All of this he can do in nearly every type of material in thicknesses from foil to 1 1/2" plate. Sheet sizes as wide as 60" are readily accommodated and coils up to 20,000 lbs. efficiently perforated and rewound.
Because he is a specialist, he has accumulated extensive banks of tooling capable of perforating round holes, square holes, rectangles, triangles, slots and a wide variety of odd-shaped holes in hundreds of patterns. Hole sizes can be as small as 1/64" to 12". The probability that he will have the tooling to match your requirements is better than 9 to 1….and all of these tools are yours to choose from.
He has the necessary follow-up operations, too, of which roller leveling is one, that remove the distortions, burrs and oil that the perforating process leaves behind. And, most perforators can do the secondary operations that will finish your part such as bending, welding, painting and plating.
Compare your costs; these are some you need to consider:
• The cost of tooling
• The time it takes to make tools
• The set-up charges on your turret press
• The production cycle of your press
• Machining time
• Roller-leveling, de-burring and degreasing
• Quality considerations
When you consider them all, your decision should be an easy one. You can use your perforating specialist exactly as you would use any other manufacturing department under your own roof. And he'll produce your work faster, at lower cost and to tolerances and other standards of quality that you'll be surprised to discover go well beyond "acceptable."
Reasons for Calling Your Perforator