Maintaining proper Air Counter Balance Pressure (ACB) in mechanical stamping presses is essential to prevent excessive wear and damage. It may be surprising to learn that damage resulting from improperly adjusted ACB pressure, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, often occurs due to human error and lack of proper training, despite ACB cylinders being a relatively inexpensive component. In order to avoid this costly damage and downtime, it is important to ensure that the ACB system is set up correctly. In my 40+ years in the stamping industry, I have seen many issues that could have been prevented with proper ACB maintenance. Here are some tips to ensure optimum ACB pressure settings for each die:
✔ ACB Cylinders should be used to equalize the upper die weight and pull up connection points in the press drive system.
✔ Static pressure settings should be used when the slide is not moving, while dynamic pressure settings may need to be increased depending on strokes per minute.
✔ Damage may occur when ACB system is not set correctly, such as when pressure is set too low, causing a hammering effect on connection points, or when pressure is set too high, causing the main motor to work harder and draw more amps.
✔ Best practices and suggestions for proper ACB settings include adding a metal plate to the upper die shoe and indicating upper die weight, entering proper settings on the job set up screen, using an AMP meter to gauge the optimum pressure setting, and ensuring proper lubrication and regular draining of ACB supply surge tanks.
✔ Proper ACB setting is required for hand-fed, stage tooling, blanking dies, progress dies, and transfer dies in presses from various makes and models including Sutherland, Schuler, Weingarten, PTC, Blow, Eagle, Aida, Komatsu, Stamtec, Chin Fong, and Seyi.
By following these tips, metal stamping and fabrication companies can save time and money, and prevent unnecessary downtime and damage to their presses.
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Maintaining proper Air Counter Balance Pressure (ACB) in mechanical stamping presses is essential to prevent excessive wear and damage. It may be surprising to learn that damage resulting from improperly adjusted ACB pressure, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, often occurs due to human error and lack of proper training, despite ACB cylinders being a relatively inexpensive component. In order to avoid this costly damage and downtime, it is important to ensure that the ACB system is set up correctly. In my 40+ years in the stamping industry, I have seen many issues that could have been prevented with proper ACB maintenance. Here are some tips to ensure optimum ACB pressure settings for each die:
✔ ACB Cylinders should be used to equalize the upper die weight and pull up connection points in the press drive system.
✔ Static pressure settings should be used when the slide is not moving, while dynamic pressure settings may need to be increased depending on strokes per minute.
✔ Damage may occur when ACB system is not set correctly, such as when pressure is set too low, causing a hammering effect on connection points, or when pressure is set too high, causing the main motor to work harder and draw more amps.
