Largest mechanical forging press
16,000-ton press presented for the first time
Schuler and its subsidiary Farina demonstrated what they claim to be the world's largest mechanical forging press to an international group of 60 forging experts.
A live video broadcast from the production facility in Suello near Milan showed the impressive features of the 16,000-ton press with a stroke of 600 mm in action. It will be supplied to the German company Thyssenkrupp Gerlach.
"Neither Farina nor Schuler alone would have been able to set up a machine in such a short time," emphasized Schuler Sales Manager Klaus Berglar-Bartsch. "We pooled all our engineering resources to achieve this." Thanks to the baffle design, the press is significantly smaller than conventional machines, with an overall height of 14 meters. This also enables high off-center loads, a high stroke rate and high precision.
From the outside, the GLF machine looks like a conventional press including flywheel, clutch and primary reduction gear. At its heart, however, the linkage works directly in the ram, which is the reason for its compact design. The massive press with a total weight of around 1,850 tons also consists of a cast steel table and welded columns.
Project completed in just 26 months
"We received the order in April 2019," Farina Managing Director Marco Gritti told the video conference participants. "In December 2019, the design was created and we started placing orders with our suppliers." The most important parts arrived in spring 2020, right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, Farina started assembly in September last year and managed to finish it in January: "It was a tough time," recalls Gritti. All parts arrived on site in Germany ready for installation in mid-April. In total, the project was completed in just 26 months.
During the subsequent live demonstration, the machine ran at half its speed of 16 strokes per minute. The online audience could see that the flywheel is installed exactly in the middle of the head piece: "This allows the press to work more precisely during the forging process," explained Gritti. "The accuracy of the parts is therefore higher than with a traditional press."
Due to the gate design, the press force of 16,000 tons, which is provided by an 800 kW drive, is also available 500 mm to the right and left. "The association with Schuler in 2018 has enabled Farina to grow and open up new markets in other parts of the world," Gritti made clear. "This project is a direct result of that." In his opinion, the next step could also be the construction of a mechanical forging press with a capacity of 20,000 tons.
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