What is a servo press?

A servo press uses servo motors for precise force and position control during forming operations.

How do I calculate servo press tonnage?

Use our free tonnage calculator at servopress.club/tonnage-calculator.html

How we extended tool life 50% with motion profiles

mike_blanking

We were burning through tooling way too fast until we started playing with the motion profiles. Here's what we changed and the results.

**1. Optimize Forming Speed
**
High impact velocity is the primary cause of tool damage. Reducing forming speed from 200mm/s to 80mm/s can reduce impact stress by 75%. Use the press motion profile to slow down only in the forming zone — maintain high speed in the approach and return phases to preserve cycle time.

**2. Implement Dwell at BDC
**
A 0.1-0.3 second dwell at bottom dead center allows material to fully form before the punch withdraws. This reduces springback, improves part quality, and reduces the snap-back force that damages cutting edges.

**3. Precision Alignment
**
Misalignment between punch and die is a leading cause of premature tool failure. Check and correct:
- Die-to-bolster alignment (use precision parallels)
- Punch-to-die clearance (should be uniform all around)
- Slide parallelism (affects all tools equally)

**4. Lubrication Optimization**

Proper lubrication reduces friction, heat, and adhesive wear. Match lubricant to material:
- Mild steel: mineral oil with EP additives
- Stainless steel: chlorinated or sulfurized EP oil
- Aluminum: non-staining mineral oil
- Copper: light mineral oil

Apply lubricant to both sides of the blank for drawing operations.

**5. Die Protection Systems
**
Install sensors to detect misfeed, double blank, and part ejection failures. Stopping the press before a crash saves the die. A ,000 sensor system can prevent a ,000 die repair.

**6. Regular Die Maintenance**

- Sharpen cutting edges before they become dull (dull edges increase force by 20-30%)
- Polish draw radii to Ra 0.4μm or better
- Check and restore clearances after every 50,000 hits

**7. Material Quality Control
**
Incoming material variation causes tool overload. Implement incoming inspection for thickness (±0.05mm) and hardness (±10 HRB).
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\n**Edit:** corrected the tool life numbers — was comparing against the wrong baseline. Still impressive though.

toolndye_dave

The speed reduction at contact is the single biggest factor. I've measured it: going from 200 mm/s to 80 mm/s at material contact extended punch life from 80K hits to 250K hits on 1.2mm cold rolled steel blanking. The cycle time impact was only 0.3 seconds per stroke because the slow zone is so short.

lisaQ_metrology

We track tool life data on every die and correlate it with press parameters. The data clearly shows that BDC dwell time has a bigger impact on die life than most people realize. Even 30ms of dwell reduces the snap-through shock significantly. Our blanking die life improved 40% just from adding a 50ms dwell.

jim_apps

Good data from everyone here. One more variable that made a huge difference for us: the deceleration profile shape before BDC.

We switched from a linear decel to an S-curve profile on our Komatsu H2W and tool life jumped another 30% on top of what we already gained from speed reduction. The S-curve eliminates the jerk at the start of deceleration — that sudden load change is what causes micro-fractures at the cutting edge.

The other thing I'd add: don't forget about the return stroke. We had a blanking die where the stripper was slamming the punch on the way back up because the return speed was too aggressive. Slowed the first 5mm of return from 300mm/s to 150mm/s and the chipping on the punch cutting edge basically stopped. Nobody thinks about the return stroke but it matters.

@lisaQ_metrology — 40% from dwell alone is impressive. What dwell time are you running? We found diminishing returns past about 50ms on our 0.8mm stainless blanking.