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Next, the roll enters one of two
blanking parts presses, where various dies – working like cookie
cutters – cut the metal into two-dimensional pieces. These steel
parts stamping pieces travel on a conveyor belt and are lifted by
a magnet, stacked into piles, and then placed on pallets for
transport to the production press lines.
Steel parts stamping has nine such lines. Each contains three or
four dies that work together to form the two-dimensional steel
plates into three-dimensional parts. A line produces an average of
seven parts per minute. The process is highly automated, as robots
or mechanical transfer devices are used to move the pieces from
one die to the next. Team members are mostly responsible for
running, monitoring and servicing equipment and stacking finished
parts onto customized racks.
For the blanking and stamping presses weigh up to 100,000 pounds
each. steel parts stamping uses about 250 dies in Stamping to
produce parts for current models, plus another 90 for models that
are no longer in production. Most of the dies can be used in more
than one stamping line, so if there’s a problem with one line, the
work can be shifted to another. But we don’t stock replacements
for the dies themselves - which cost as much as $1 million per set
- so any serious damage can halt parts production until the die is
repaired or replaced. Since steel parts stamping normally only
keeps enough parts in stock to last about five hours, a problem
that can’t be corrected quickly can potentially shut down the
steel parts stamping assembly line. |
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