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NEW DEPTHSDIVING 1,000 FEET BENEATHTHE SEA IN THE MACHINEDAND FABRICATEDALUMINUM EXOSUIT

HYDRAULIC PRESSES Beckwood Press Co.’s integrated systemmakes presses better able to diagnose problemsINSIDE

November 2014

Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of Jacques Cousteau, on a test dive of the Exosuit

“An ounce of prevention is wortha pound of cure.” BenjaminFranklin uttered his now-fa-mous words as firefighting

advice when he organized Philadelphia’sfirst fire company in 1736. Almost 280years later, prevention remains a hot topic,especially for equipment manufacturers

like St. Louis-based Beckwood Press Co. The company designs and builds hy-

draulic presses and automation systemsengineered to customers’ unique applica-tions, in addition to producing its Triformline of sheet hydroforming and stretchforming presses. Beckwood serves clientsin the aerospace and defense, energy, oil

and gas, automotive, construction andagriculture industries.Reactive maintenance, a common task

facing fabricators, has technicians scrambleinto action to repair machines when theybreak down without warning. Repair per-

Hydraulic Presses BY LYNN STANLEY, SENIOR EDITOR

FFJournal® November 2014

Derailingunplanned downtime

As seen in the November 2014 issue of®

A 165-ton hydraulic trim pressengineered by Beckwood Press Co.for an automotive industrycustomer. The press is outfittedwith On-Board Pre-PreventiveMaintenance technology.

Integrated system makes presses betterable to diagnose problems

Hydraulic Presses

FFJournal® November 2014

sonnel refer to it as firefighting. The state ofemergency that unplanned downtime cre-ates has birthed a series of maintenanceprograms, from proactive to predictive. Beckwood has gone a step further with

its On-Board Pre-Preventive Maintenance(PPM) technology, engineered to give itspresses artificial intelligence and fabricatorsa glimpse into the future. Through Beck-wood’s integrated PPM system, critical dataon press performance and component sta-tus is both mined and shared, with the goalof eliminating unplanned downtime.

Artificial intelligence“These days manufacturers are operatingwith skeleton maintenance crews,” saysDarrell Harrelson, technical director forBeckwood. “Beckwood has identified thistrend, and countered with smarter ma-chines capable of alerting operators,maintenance crews and managementteams with advance warning when a presssystem requires attention. The 911 emer-gency nature of a maintenance team’s jobis greatly minimized, allowing downtimeto be scheduled when appropriate onceproduction requirements, operator avail-ability and other projects slated for themachine are factored in.”According to Harrelson, Beckwood has

been on its own evolutionary track. Foryears, the press builder has integrated a re-mote hub into its presses, permitting itssupport technicians to remotely accesscustomers’ presses and troubleshoot prob-lems online. The company has also builtredundancy into its presses to guardagainst downtime due to the failure of rel-atively inexpensive components. “Our presses, which are often critical

path pieces of equipment, can’t afford tobe down due to, for example, a $300 trans-ducer,” says Harrelson. “Including certainredundant devices keeps Beckwoodpresses running even when an individualcomponent stops functioning.”Last year Beckwood made a compa-

nywide effort “to identify as many thingsas possible to boost machine intelligenceand its ability to self-diagnose,” Harrel-son explains. “That analysis helped usdefine what we like to call a modern daycrystal ball—On-Board Pre-PreventiveMaintenance.”

Closed loop monitoring of key systemsand built-in component redundanciesscrutinize a machine in operation, analyzedata and alert operators before unplanneddowntime can upset productivity.The integrated package complements

another trend among fabricators—that of the manufacturing metric OverallEquipment Effectiveness (OEE). OEEexamines subcomponents of a manufac-turing process such as availability,performance and quality, converting theresults of these factors into a percentagethat offers a snapshot of production effi-ciency for a machine or work cell.Technology has been a big driver, Har-

relson says. As technology has advanced,so has the ability to give managementteams greater information. “Ten years ago

there were very few machines that couldnetwork to a central monitoring station.Standard equipment was typically a stand-alone device. You bought it, placed it,plugged it in and it ran on its own. Thathas changed. Packages like OEE canchart productivity, number of parts perhour and other factors—feedback thatmanagement can use to make more in-formed decisions about capital equipmentinvestments and production schedules.”The methods under which manufac-

turers operate today has also created aready market for smart machines. “Com-panies need a technological edge that canhelp them reduce turnaround time onparts production by eliminating a fabrica-tor’s worst enemy: downtime,” Harrelsonnotes. “More and more we see manufac-turers turning into short run specialists.Instead of dedicating machines to makingmillions of the same widget, they mightmake 1,000 of one part, then switch overto make a different component in a shortamount of time.”

Real-time diagnosisDespite the trend toward short productionruns, multiple die changes and rapid de-velopment, Beckwood believes smartmachines should remain easy to operate.“We never make a machine more com-

plicated than it needs to be,” Harrelsonobserves. “It’s important to keep presses in-tuitive enough for operators with varyingskill levels. You don’t want a guy on thirdshift to be confused about the input re-quired to make parts. Our goal is to keepit simple and straightforward, despite theunderlying increases in technology and

A Triform 25-10-12SC sheethydroforming press. Beckwoodoffers its advanced PPM system onboth its custom hydraulic presses,as well as on its Triform sheethydroforming presses.

The press health screen givesoperators all the system’s vitals.

Hydraulic Presses

FFJournal® November 2014

overall capability.”Approaching the challenge of un-

planned downtime with a risk assessmentmentality is what helped Beckwood de-fine and crystallize its On-Board PPMtool. Like the systematic process that eval-uates potential risks associated with aprojected activity, engineers analyzed allaspects of a press system’s health and iden-tified more than 40 different action itemsand notifications falling into categoriesthat include alarms, warnings, pump effi-ciency, safety systems status, oil health,filter status and valve performance.“A press system’s health can now be

evaluated in real time with PPM,” saysHarrelson. “The system is able to actuallyrecognize acceptable parameters for eachmetric and notify the user’s team ofemerging patterns that could lead to prob-lems—before a shutdown.”Take hydraulic and lube oil systems

for example. Most hydraulic presses areequipped with filtration and visual by-pass indicators set to remind operators tomake periodic oil changes. However,changing oil doesn’t necessarily meanit’s clean, if the newly added oil isn’tproperly filtered first. ”More than 75 percent of all hydraulic

system failures are a direct result of con-tamination,” says Harrelson. “Fluid healthcan be monitored and controlled with theright onboard technologies and it’s a criti-cal area of focus for PPM.”According to Harrelson, if particulate

count on a PPM-monitored Beckwoodpress begins to rise above acceptable lev-els, or if preset parameters are exceededfor particulate count and size, water con-tent and oil temperature, early warningnotifications are issued that give mainte-nance crews the “chance to get out infront of any potential problems beforethey happen.”Unlike traditional presses that use a

human machine interface to displaywarnings, the PPM’s notification systemis a key component to its effectiveness.“The HMI method of notification workswell if you’re the operator,” says Harrel-son. “If you’re a maintenance manager,production manager or other key mem-ber of a manufacturing team, on-screennotifications are far from visible. Select

notifications from the PPM system arenot only displayed on the press HMI, butare also e-mailed to preselected teammembers as well as Beckwood’s supporttechnicians.” This 360-degree notificationprogram makes sure that individuals whoare mission critical to press operations arekept informed of its performance andservice requirements. While the system was designed to safe-

guard both the machine and users’productivity, it also looks after another im-portant resource: employees.“PPM uses an internal calendar and in-

tuitive process to regularly verify that allintegrated safety devices are working prop-

erly,” says Harrelson. “Operators areguided through a mandatory verificationprocess once a week to ensure all onboardsafety systems are functioning correctly.The process takes just two minutes anddoesn’t interfere with production.” Beckwood’s risk assessment mentality

is giving technical specialists ideas fornew applications, he says. “We’re alwaysasking: What can we add that will ben-efit the user? We can only go so far withpress structure and hydraulics. Usabilityof our equipment, and the productivitylevels we can help our customersachieve is what will set Beckwood apartin the future.” FFJ

Beckwood’s PPM system can beprogrammed to monitor and reportwhen temperature variances areout of spec on heated platenpresses.

Beckwood Press Co./Triform, St. Louis, 636/343-4100, www.beckwoodpress.com.

Reprinted from FFJournal® November 2014 • Copyright Trend Publishing Inc.