French’s hydraulic press rebuilding services improve customers’ profit through increased production and energy savings, reduced safety hazards, enhanced press reliability and part quality with lower scrap rates.
A French customer, who specializes in the friction material molding of parts used in commercial and military aircraft braking systems, hired French to rebuild ten 400-ton hydraulic presses. The presses, built by a French competitor, ranged from 15-30 years old and varied in operating condition. Some presses were producing a very high percentage of scrap products and others were no longer operational.
The customer’s process requires tight control of key parameters in a number of sequences to produce high-quality parts. French rebuilt the hydraulic column presses with electric, hydraulic and mechanical improvements to give the customer controlled heating and pressing in their molding process.
After six months of operating the rebuilt presses, the customer reported over 20% energy savings in their friction material molding process. In addition, the customer increased their production and molded higher quality parts with lower levels of scrap.
A variety of press improvements made in the rebuilding process gave the customer these impressive results. French rebuilt the internal configurations of the press and the part eject system to improve press reliability. Electrical plugs were installed to reduce the amount of time for tool changes, invariably increasing production. A new hydraulic system with energy-efficient and premium sealing technology was designed to improve the system response and performance with less energy consumption. French installed a new gate system to reduce operator hazards and made various other ergonomic improvements to assist the operator’s productivity and reduce strain.
The customer’s process engineer commented on the rebuild process,
“Our older presses were experiencing frequent downtime and their inconsistent operation was resulting in variations in final product. The decision was to rebuild 10 of the oldest presses. We had no experience with French but had gotten positive reports from our other divisions. It did not take French long to impress us. From the initial introduction through the quoting process, French consistently provided good ideas and suggestions. The design and engineering is excellent and we are thankful for the consistent operation of the rebuilt presses and significant reduction in energy costs.”
French has been the industry technology and quality leader since 1900, serving customers in over 80 countries. The family-owned, ISO-certified company custom designs, manufactures and supports a wide assortment of stand-alone hydraulic press designs and turnkey systems for the composite, friction, lamination and rubber industries. Our custom capabilities range from various platen sizes and advanced controls for press tonnages generally ranging from 20 ton to 2000 tons. We commonly design 100 ton hydraulic presses, 1000 ton hydraulic presses and 2,000 ton hydraulic presses with various platen sizes, for compression, transfer, lamination or vacuum molding. French presses are well known for their superior value, very low deflection, rugged construction, long life and industry-leading three-year warranty. French is the parent company to TMP, A Division of French, who also offers hydraulic presses and rebuilding services.
To learn more about French or TMP hydraulic presses designed or rebuilt for your profitability, please contact a French sales engineer by calling 937-773-3420 ext. 290 or by e-mailing us.