The 220t crown of the try-out press
Following a 13 140 km journey from Spain by ship, Volkswagen Group South Africa’s (VWSA’s) new try-out press has arrived at the manufacturer’s Uitenhage plant.
VWSA has invested R120-million in a new 21 000 kN try-out press to improve manufacturing capabilities at its Eastern Cape facility.
The new press will be used to ensure that the tools are pressing vehicle sheet-metal parts according to the required quality standards. This ensures that the currently installed presses are used solely for production, thus improving the productivity of the press plant.
The try-out press will also be used in tool maintenance, as well as implementing engineering changes on the current series production press tools. (Try-out presses are typically best suited for use in die-testing and start-up before volume production begins.)
“The press design and kinematics of this new press are comparable to that of the equivalent production draw press. It will, therefore, be able to accurately reproduce the line conditions and deliver the same quality of parts off-line,” says VWSA chairperson and MD Thomas Schaefer.
Once fully assembled, the new press will weigh around 600 t and deliver a maximum force of 2 100 t, equivalent in weight to 306 male African elephants.
The heaviest single lift in the initial stages of the project was the press bed at 120 t. However, this was eclipsed by the press crown, which weighed in at 220 t, and was lifted eight metres above floor level and mounted on top of the press columns.
“Our Uitenhage plant has one of the newest press plants in South Africa and in the Volkswagen Group. The press plant was commissioned in 2013 and is capable of producing close to 10 000 parts per day for the Polo, Cross Polo and local Polo Vivo models,” notes Schaefer.
The try-out press is expected to be fully operational by mid-2016.
VWSA last year announced a R4.5-billion investment programme to upgrade and expand the Uitenhage plan to produce two new models.