up gradeNewsletter for customers, employees and partners volume 16, issue no. 32, September 2014

Know-how

News

Higher efficiency through electric upsettingThe demand for higher and higher efficien-

cy in production brings a classic forming

process, the electric upsetting, a renais-

sance: Due to extended requirements,

LASCO has completely re-engineered the

well-proven technology and offers lines

that highly convince in many fields of ap-

plication.

Hirschvogel relies on LASCO pre-forming unitThe well-known German automotive

supplier Hirschvogel ordered a LASCO

forging roll type RCW 560 So for its

production site in Pinghu, China.

Mubea calibrates with direct drive technologyThe new hydraulic servo direct drive from

LASCO is now used by Mubea, special-

ist for heavy-duty spring components for

vehicles, too. The automotive supplier

calibrates disk springs with a new LASCO

multi-purpose press VPE 400 in its plant

in Daaden (Germany).

LASCO UMFORMTECHNIKWERKZEUGMASCHINENFABRIK

Editorial

2

Trends + Markets

up grade LASCO 32/14

Friedrich HerdanPartner and Chairman of the Board Langenstein & Schemann GmbH

Impressed by innovative strength Hanover Fair: State Minister Aigner visits LASCO

Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Ilse Aigner was impressed with the innovative strength of the mechanical engineering company during her visit to LASCO at the Hanover Fair.

The Minister got a personal impression of

the international competitiveness of Bava-

rian companies during her tour of the most

important industrial fair world-wide. At the

joint exhibition stand of the Industrieverband

Massivumformung e. V. (IMU) she was infor-

med about LASCO’s contribution to trends

and new develoments in the fields of material

and resource efficiency.

LASCO was one of 30 other IMU member

companies on an exhibition space of more

than 1000 m2. The key issue of “lightweight

forging” of the joint IMU exhibition picked up

the thread of the manifold research activities

of the association in this field.

We are looking at the growing international tensions caused by the political developments in the eastern neighbourhood of the EU full of concern and are sharing the hope with our business associates in Russia and the Ukraine that solutions will be found through diplomatic channels that will bring about acceptable reconciliation of the legitimate interests of all par-ties involved. This requires direct communication based on mutual respect.

We do not take it upon ourselves to judge decisions and deeds which are in the responsibility of politics. However, in the light of the 150 years of our company his-tory and international experience, it seems admissible to emphasize one idea:

The highest dynamics in increas-ing wealth and benefits has always been achieved in times of inter-national cooperation and never in times of confrontation.

Throughout the times of global political changes of the 19th and 20th century LASCO has estab-lished and expanded international business relationships and has always been a reliable partner for our customers. We want to and will continue this way.

YoursFriedrich Herdan

Maintaining respect

Bavarian State Minister of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology and Deputy Minister-President of Bavaria Ilse Aigner (3rd from left) is getting information about LASCO from Sales Director Dr.-Ing. Stefan Erxleben (3rd from right) and Dr. Theodor Tutmann, Director of the Industrieverband Massivumformung e. V. (German Association for Solid Forming) (2nd from right) at the exhibition stand.

LASCO symposium for experts in Bratislava46 representatives of forming companies

from Slovakia, Czechia and Austria accepted

LASCO’s invitation to take part in a one-day

specialist symposium in Bratislava (Slovakia).

Its focus was on optimisation potential in

processes and technologies. Professor Bohuslav

Masek from the West Bohemian University in

Pilsen presented “New concepts and outlooks

on forging parts of the future”, Adis Huskic from

Leibniz University, Hanover, presented “Ex-

perimental and numerical studies of integrated

thermal treatment of forged steel components

using the forging heat”. LASCO experts Rainer

Scheler and Jochen Günnel gave information

on new and further developments from LASCO

such as the hydraulic servo direct drive or the

orbital forming press, the hydraulic horizontal

forging machine and stretching line AR-D as

well as on the forging and cross wedge roll with

direct drive.

21st IFC: Meeting point of the forging worldWith 750 delegates from 30 countries the 21st

International Forging Congress (IFC) in Berlin

(29 June – 1 July) advanced to the position of

meeting point for key members of the global

forging industry. The invitation for this event

was extended by EUROFORGE, the European

umbrella organization for eleven national forg-

ing organizations. The congress focussed on

high-calibre technical lectures on technology

and mega trends of the industry.

LASCO supported the event as ambassador

sponsor and took the unique opportunity to talk

to customers and prospective buyers from all

over the world at the accompanying exhibi-

tion. Following the congress 290 participants

accepted the offer to visit 41 leading forming

companies in seven European countries. A

large number of the host companies are among

LASCO’s customers and allowed access to their

production sites.

3

News

up grade LASCO 32/14

Due to its sustained success

with LASCO technology the US

American Moline Forge pur-

chased another double-acting

hammer.Recently representatives of the enterprise in

Moline/Illinois put the HO-U 315 optimised

for their individual applications to the acid

test before they released it for shipment. The

obligatory machine acceptance of the form-

ing unit was a performance test attended by

experts, as Moline Forge is already absolutely

familiar with LASCO technology: At Moline

Forge hydraulic double-acting die-forging

hammers types HO-U 250, HO-U 500 and

hammers of the KH series from LASCO have

been in permanent use for decades. The US

forge produces forgings with approx. up to 40

kg used for rail traffic, mechanical engineering

and agriculture.

Impressed by innovative strength

Hirschvogel orders automated forging roll

Vehicle parts made of aluminium for ChinaIn the future the Hirschvogel

group in Pinghu/China will also

be using an automated forging

roll from LASCO for the manufac-

ture of vehicle parts made from

aluminium for Chinese customers.

The well-known German automotive supplier

is having a forging roll RCW 560 So with auto-

mation tailor-made and equipped with set-up

device and replacement rollers for its Chinese

production site near Shanghai (established in

2005).

The forging roll is designed for pre-forming

forging parts made from aluminium or alu-

minium alloys. Pre-forms for chassis parts

Customer acceptance of the HO-U 315 for Moline Forge (from right): Alexander Zeitler (head of LASCO spare part department), Jeffrey Bolton (service engineer LES/USA). Bernd Schubert and Holger Welsch (LASCO service technicians) with Dino Adamson (maintenance manager Moline Forge) and Jochen Günnel (deputy sales director LASCO).

Mubea calibrates more efficiently now The global Mubea group, too, has been using

the big efficiency advantage of the hydrau-

lic servo direct drive since recently. At the

production site in Daaden (Germany) a multi-

purpose press VPE 400 with servo direct drive

has been used since recently by the specialist

for heavy-duty spring components and related

products for calibrating disk springs. With

the line the characteristic curve of the spring

disk is set by a calculated calibrating process.

The trace of the force–displacement curve

is monitored and the calibrating process is

controlled correspondingly. Springs with outer

diameters of up to 1,000 mm and a material

thickness of up to 40 mm can be calibrated

at a maximum calibrating force of 4,000 kN.

The owner-managed family business Mubea

(main production site Muhr und Bender KG,

Attendorn/Germany) sees itself as global part-

ner to the automotive industry and lightweight

construction specialist for heavy-duty spring

components. With its lightweight construction

technologies, new materials and processing

methods Mubea substantially contributes to

the construction of lighter vehicles with in-

novative solutions.

from aluminium (rolling temperatures of up

to 560°C) with a max. weight of 9 kg will be

produced from raw material of a maximum

diameter of 115 mm and a length of 300 mm.

The line has been equipped with a tempe-

rature control system and a tool lubrication

system for the rolling of aluminium materials.

The forging roll will be integrated into a

forging line for which LASCO is supplying the

complete automation and control technology.

The Hirschvogel Automotive Group (with its

headquarters in Denklingen, Germany) is one

of the biggest automotive suppliers opera-

ting in solid forming of steel and aluminium

world-wide.

US forge purchased another double-acting hammer

LASCO electro-upsetters EV and EH

Reliable process and quality by:

� constant and monitored heating tem-

perature due to thyristor-controlled and

steplessly adjustable heating current,

� monitored upsetting speed,

� contact electrodes and guide jaws with

parallel and synchronized gripping at

constant height,

� monitoring and prevention of buckling.

Centric upsetting

A renowned German manufacturer of large

valves recently placed an order with LASCO

for three horizontal electro-upsetters type EH

315 (transformer capacity 315 kVA).

The units have undergone the customer

acceptance test and have been shipped

meanwhile. The standard design of one of

the units was complemented additionally by

a special device for upsetting a collar (centric

upsetting) for a system that rotates the valve

between the working cycles to reduce wear.

Sequence of operations: Basically “centric

upsetting” corresponds to “free upsetting

at the bar end”. The difference is that the

forged valve cooled down to room tempera-

ture is contacted by two pairs of electrodes

with different potential below the valve disk.

The valve disk is supported by a fixed stop,

and a feed at the bar end gathers volume in

a controlled way between the two pairs of

electrodes. The heating current merely flows

between the pairs of electrodes, the valve

disk and the shaft remain cold.

The once widespread electro-upsetting for

gathering volume on bar material made of

different metallic materials and alloys has

recently been experiencing a come-back

for special applications. With immediate

operational readiness (without a long start-up

process) upsetting can be carried out at the

bar end or any other part of the bar. Volume

gathered in free upsetting can be handled

in a further forming process without being

heated intermediately. Die upsets that are

produced in other competing forming pro-

cesses are usually too cold for further forging.

Furthermore the electric upsetting process is

not restricted to specific cross sections and

mostly round material is used.

Additional properties and advantages:

� Only the section to be upset is heated.

� No waste of heating energy and material.

The shaft which will not be deformed

stays cold.

� Low ohmic and inductive (eddy current)

losses.

� Very efficient energy consumption de-

manding 0.35 – 0.40 kWh/kg of heated

material due to the optimum design of

the high current circuit.

� No or drastically reduced scale formation.

� No environmental pollution by radiant

heat, smoke or other emissions.

� Good grain flow and wrinkle-free surface.

� Constant heating temperature.

Know-how

4 up grade LASCO 32/14

Energy-efficient and economicalElectro-upsetters in vertical and horizontal design now with extended process

Picture 1: Free upsetting

Possible processes and shapes of volume gathering

Picture 2: Form upsetting

Picture 3: Conical and spherical upsetting

Horizontal standard machine with clamping feed

LASCO electro-upsetters EV and EH

There are possible uses in energy generation

and the aviation industry that go beyond the

well-known and well-proven applications of

electric upsetting.

Volume required for the root and cover of

turbine blades made from high-alloy materials

can be gathered by free upsetting as well.

Centric upsetting is also suited for the mid-

spans of longer turbine blades.

Author: Franz Suttan

Further fields of application of the process

Know-how

up grade LASCO 32/14 5

Energy-efficient and economicalElectro-upsetters in vertical and horizontal design now with extended process

Examples of applications of electro-upsetting

Fields of application of centric upsetting

Valves for combustion engines Tie rod end for steering

Rear axle shaft with spline end Drive shaft or torsion bar

Large valve collar

Aviation turbine

blade

Steam turbine blade

Picture of the machine for free, form and centric upsetting

Die forging

Billet (bar end)

Upset length Upsetting Trimming Piercing

Production of tie rod ends

Internal

up grade LASCO 32/146

10 years with LASCOLars Ehrlicher 01.12.2013Wolfgang Foerster 01.05.2014Thierry Lebailly 17.05.2014Gerhard Schoder 01.06.2014

25 yaers with LASCOUlrike Rusert 01.03.2014Andrea Hamm 01.07.2014

Spotlights

High-precision boring mill: A new

boring mill type „SPIRIT T” of the

Italian manufacturer FTP has been

in operation at LASCO

since September

2013. The new

production

centre

offers a

number

of advantages

that lead to a reduction

of the machining time of parts. After

some months’ practical experience in

three-shift operation on five days/week

the expectations pinned to this invest-

ment have been met. According to

LASCO machine operators the „Spirit”

is a very solid machine with good

cutting data (feed, rotational speed),

it is convincing by its good machine

concept and specially suited for deep-

hole boring because of its high coolant

performance.

New facility: LASCO Beijing has

opened a new facility in Changchun to

be able to intensify its business activi-

ties in China and above all to shorten

the distances to customers. Li Bing

has been appointed Sales Director

Forging North China and Branch Man-

ager. Changchun City is the capital of

Jilin province and with its more than

seven million inhabitants the second

largest city in the northeast of the

People’s Republic of China. Because

of the numerous automotive compa-

nies located there it is also nicknamed

„China’s Detroit”.

„Dr.-Kapp-Vorbildpreis” for Florian Brehm

Exemplary commitment for public welfare

Franz Brosch (left), Director of the employers’ association bayme vbm Upper Franconia (Germany), and Martin Kapp, Managing Partner of the KAPP Group (right) are congratulating Florian Brehm on his award.

Florian Brehm, third year me-chatronics apprentice at LASCO, has been awarded the „Dr.-Kapp-Vorbildpreis”.

The award was named after its donor, Dr.

Bernhard Kapp, and founder of the KAPP

Group, an internationally active mechanical

engineering company from Coburg (Germany).

It honours unselfish commitment of young

people for public welfare. Florian Brehm has

been devoting a large part of his free time to

the volunteer fire brigade in Rödental (Germa-

ny), where he passed an intensive training in

fire fighting. Now he is responsible for training

junior fire fighters himself.

Brehm received the award together with

another 61 young people from companies in

the metal and electrical industry in Upper

Franconia who had been recommended by

their employers. The „Dr.-Kapp-Vorbildpreis”

includes prize money of EUR€10,000 and has

been awarded for the 10th time.

Vocational training finished successfullyFive young men successfully finished their apprenticeship at LASCO by passing their final exams at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Coburg (Germany). After the ceremony of handing over the diplomas Gernot Losert (left), Managing Director Administration/Production and the training supervisors Björn Bühling and Georg Pfeuffer (2nd and 1st form right) congratulated the cutting machine operators Richard Kouassi and Danny Streng (2nd and 3rd from left) as well as the industrial mechanic David Schubert (4th from left). Not in the picture: Robert Neumann (electronics technician for operating tech-nology) and Theodor Weinert (mechatronics technician).

Boring mill FTP Spirit T

7

Internal

up grade LASCO 32/14

Metalform ChinaBeijing, China

16. – 19.09.2014

SENAFORPorto Alegre, Brazil08. – 10.10.2014

EuroBLECHHanover, Germany21. – 25.10.2014

5th Asia Forge MeetingKaohsiung, Taiwan03. – 06.11.2014

Fairs + dates

up grade Volume 16, issue no. 32 – September 2014 Publisher: LASCO Umformtechnik GmbH Hahnweg 139 - 96450 Coburg Senior Editor: Dr.-Ing. Stefan Erxleben Photos: LASCO Umformtechnik, VDL Weweler, IHK zu Coburg, Georg Weber.

EU project „Leonardo da Vinci“

24 apprentices from the sectors metal technology, wood technology and electrical engineering were handed over the EU certificate „europass Mobilität” (europass mobility) after three-week internships in other European countries. Among them were Edy Hamuyela (industrial mechanic 2nd year of apprentice-ship) and Marius Kinhirt (3rd year of apprenticeship).

The aim of the EU project “Leon-

ardo da Vinci” LASCO has been

involved in for years is to im-

prove mobility, cooperation and

division of labour of the econo-

mies in the European Union.

LASCO has been taking part in the project

since its launch in the Coburg area in coo-

peration with the vocational schools and the

Chamber of Commerce and Industry by e. g.

the exchange of apprentices for internships

in other European countries. Recently the

Swedish apprentices Simon Goja and Frederik

Wafs from SKF in Gothenburg (Sweden) as

well as Anthony Deboo and Juha De Praetere

from the Belgian “Vrij Technisch Instituut” in

Waregem did internships of several weeks at

LASCO.

In return the LASCO apprentices Marius

Kinhirt and Edy Hamuela (both industrial

mechanics) could do an internship in Sweden

respectively in Austria.

After his three-week internship at SKF in

Gothenburg, Kinhirt said he would highly

Exchange of young people

Second round of „School physics meets mechanical engineering practice”The project „School physics meets mechanical engineering practice” intended to help secondary school students in Coburg to choose a professional career is being continued. At LASCO young people were now able to try out the contents of their physics class in the working life of a mechanical engineering company. The picture shows the guests together with their teachers StD Scherbel (2nd from right), OStR Geißler (4th from right), Deputy Sales Director Günnel (left), Managing Director Administration/Production Losert (2nd from left), the Head of Electrics/Electronics Stengel (4th from left) and graduate physicist Taubmann (Design Department forming/special machines – 7th from right).

Marius Kinhirt (right) with colleagues from other training companies from Coburg at the SKF museum in Gothenburg.

recommend this exchange of trainees to

everybody. According to him it was a good

experience of life to have to integrate oneself

in other countries, cultures and working me-

thods and to use one’s knowledge of foreign

languages. It showed to him that the specialist

knowledge acquired during his vocational trai-

ning so far could also be applied abroad. On

the other hand he was very impressed by the

working method of the Swedish enterprise that

reflected a strict commitment to sustainabi-

lity and environmental responsibility. Kinhirt

passed his internship together with three col-

leagues from other companies from Coburg.

He said he had experienced a very hearty and

open welcome.

up grade LASCO 32/14

In practice

up grade: Mr. Aalderink, your enterprise is the first company to use an automatic roller gap adjustment. What is its benefit for Weweler?

Dick G. Aalderink: We don’t want to waste any material in the pre-forming process. That’s why we want to redistribute as much material as possible until we get the material to where we need it. This is possible with the very comfortable and efficient technology of the new forging roll. And this is also where the process essentially differs from traditional die-forging, in which relatively much material is wasted by the indispensable flash.

up grade: This further development of stretch rolling respectively roll forging was the specific requirement you made to LASCO. Has it been met?

Aalderink: Yes, it has – at least as far as our technical specifications are concerned. Now we are challenged by our own product development, which had been limited by the technical possibilities of the forming units so far. The new forging roll enables us to gener-ate completely new products that are feasible as far as production technology is concerned. Thus the correct answer is: As matters stand we think so.

up grade: Has the new development already passed its acid test?

Aalderink: As already said: It’s actually up to us to furnish proof of it!

up grade: How big do you think has your edge over the competition become now?

Aalderink: It is important to us to point out that we have great respect for our colleagues in this industry. Therefore I would not like to talk about an „edge over” them. We are following a strategy aiming at niches by having increasingly specialized in suspension systems. The new technology allows us to manufacture unique products of which we expect USPs.

Challenge

Roll forging with process-integrated, dynamic roller gap adjustment

– that’s absolutely new. The Dutch spring specialist VDL Weweler is

the first user of this technical advancement. After some months of

practical experience Weweler is more and more convinced that the

new RCW 630 So is a milestone for spring rolling.

Dynamic roller gap adjustment on the RCW 630 at VDL Weweler in Apeldoorn (Netherlands).

Interview

Dick G. AalderinkManaging DirectorVDL Weweler B. V.Apeldoorn, Netherlands

The short form „So” in the LASCO type

designations stand for „Sonderausführung”

(„special design”). The subtle difference

compared to standard designs of the forging

roll series „RCW” is the dynamic roller gap ad-

justment. It is required that rectangular steel

billets can be rolled on both ends in the shape

of an exactly defined parable without the

profile width changing significantly. LASCO

developed the new technical feature in close

coordination with the first user of this innovati-

on, VDL Weweler.

As spreading cannot be avoided in flat rolling

with a tool without profile, it must be com-

pensated by upstream or downstream upright

rolling. Depending on the tolerance require-

ment flat or upright rolling will be repeated

several times.

The basic design of the special longitudinal

rolling machine corresponds more or less

to the RCW series. The dynamic roller gap

adjustment is effected via two hydraulic

cylinders which are coupled with one of the

two bearing housings of the upper roller each.

The roller diameter is 630 mm, the maximum

rolling force 2000 kN. A specially adapted

and programmed industrial robot takes over

the function of the manipulator.

To be able to guarantee the necessary repea-

tability of the roller gap at a rolling speed of

up to 500 m/sec and a roller gap adjustment

speed of 100 mm/sec, the hydraulic system

with proportional control technology had to be

developed especially for this application.

Two standard tools are arranged next to each

other on the rollers: a contourless flat tool as

well as a tool with flute-type contour. During

the rolling pass the roller gap is adjusted syn-

chronously to the roller rotation in a compu-

ter-controlled way.

The RCW 630 provides reliable services in

the new plant of VDL Weweler in Apeldoorn

(Ecofactory). The enterprise, which belongs

to the internationally established VDL Groep,

develops, produces and sells air suspension

systems for trailers, trucks and busses. Ano-

ther business area is the development of lift

axles and parable springs.

A subtle differenceAcid test at Wewler