Specialized Service Center for Presses

Safety of employees operating machinery should be a top priority for any company. It is necessary to take care of both the machines already in operation at the production plant, as well as those brought in from other company locations or purchased from outside the organization.

Among the group of machines whose unchecked technical condition can have a particularly negative direct impact on the health and lives of operating employees are presses of all kinds.

In the case of presses, accidents often have dramatic consequences for operators: amputations, severe injuries and even death, hence the great emphasis on ensuring the safety of operators.

In industry, the most common presses are:

Mechanical presses are considered the most dangerous, due to the speed of the press slide. A cycle can last even less than one second, which is why it is so important to guarantee safe operation.

In Poland, it is very common to find machines in operation that are several decades old, often imported from the European market and not adequately adapted to modern safety requirements and the second group are machines that are brand new, but manufactured outside Europe and do not meet safety standards. Modernization or overhaul is a necessary move to get it up and running and operating safely. Hence the importance of checking the reliability of the machinery and equipment both in terms of safety and current legislation before it is put into operation and put into service.

PRESSES – SCOPES OF WORK

At Automatech we have the knowledge, specialists and experience in modernizing presses. Our team of engineers has carried out dozens of them, making us experts in this area.

Our most common implementations include:

1. Modernization of mechanical presses - in terms of safety systems, control systems, adaptation to safety requirements
2. Hydraulic presses - in terms of safety systems, control systems, adaptation to safety requirements, modernization/refurbishment of hydraulic systems
3. Hydraulic press brakes - safety systems, control systems, adaptation to safety requirements, modernization/repairs of hydraulic systems
4. Automation of presses - integrating industrial robots into presses to create automated robotic cells

APPLICABLE STANDARDS

Occupational health and safety requirements are contained primarily in:

Regulation of the Minister of Economy dated 30.10.2002
Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
Directive 2009/104/EC
Electrical measurements according to PN EN 60204-1 standard
PN EN ISO 13855 standard
Detailed standard for mechanical presses PN-EN ISO 16092-1, prEN ISO 16092-2 and older standard PN-EN 692
Detailed standard for hydraulic press brakes PN-EN 12622
Detailed standard for hydraulic presses PN-EN ISO 16092-1, PN-EN ISO 16092-3 and older standard PN-EN 693
Detailed standard for hydraulic press brakes PN-EN 12622

DIAGNOSTICS

Meeting safety standards for presses is crucial in terms of occupational health and safety. That is why it is so important to undertake diagnostic work at the very beginning.

The first and most important step is to conduct a safety audit. The safety audit will verify the machine from every point of view affecting safe operation, identify areas of risk taking into account all components of the machine, and propose non-conforming solutions requiring corrective action. In addition to the safety audit, a machine run-up measurement is often performed.

OUR EXPERIENCE – CASE STUDY

Our team of experts has carried out modernizations of varying degrees of complexity. One of the projects was “Modernization of the mechanical press at BorgWarner Rzeszow.” Automatech’s engineering team was faced with the task of retrofitting the machine to meet legal requirements related to occupational health and safety, as well as to ensure shorter machine changeover times. The implementation was based on Siemens solutions.

A mechanical press with a pressing force of 250kN and a speed of 100-200 cycles per minute, equipped with a friction clutch along with integrated machinery was subject to modernization. It was necessary to adapt the old solutions of the 23-year-old machine to the current requirements in accordance with the Decree of the Minister of Economy of 30.10.2002 and Directive 2009/104/EC. The control safety audit performed and a measurement of the machine’s run-in showed the need for changes including: supplementing the machine’s guards, installing new RFiD sensors and interlock switches on the machine’s guards, and updating the machine’s electrical schematic to take into account the new safety elements. An important part of the upgrade was the installation of a new safety module using the existing control system.

Automatech engineers performed:

Software for the safety system
Removing non-conformities in accordance with the safety audit report
Completing the documentation
Training of operators on the operation of the system after its modification
Prepared a document confirming compliance with the minimum requirements for the machine

A major challenge was the short period allocated for all tasks. „It was necessary to accelerate the work in order to start production as soon as possible.”- recalls Pavel Auguściuk – the project engineer responsible for the project at AUTOMATECH.

The goal of the second stage of the modernization was to shorten the machine’s changeover time, thus allowing the control and safety system to be replaced with a new solution.

As a result of the work carried out, a completely new press control system was made in accordance with the requirements of the 2006/42/EC Machinery Directive and contemporary standards, mainly the PN EN 692 standard for mechanical presses.

Further modernization work concerned optimization of downtime. Key point here was the implementation of software for the ET200S Fail Safe controller, including a safety program, as well as complete diagnostics of the machine’s control and safety system.

We wrote more about the entire project on our website, read below

Here

If you want to check or improve the safety level of employees operating presses or other machinery or equipment at your plant, we encourage you to contact our engineers.