voestalpine AG from Austria is a leading global technology group with combined materials and processing expertise. The services of the 500 Group companies with locations in more than 50 countries on all continents are focused on product and system solutions made of steel and other metals. The materials are used in technology-intensive industries and niche sectors with the highest quality standards. With its high-quality product and system solutions, the company is therefore one of the leading partners to the international automotive and household appliance industries and is a global supplier to the aviation, oil and gas industries.

Structural dampers from ACE: reversible, inexpensive, compact, lightweight and absorbing energy with different damping characteristics depending on the design © ACE Shock absorber GmbH

The subsidiary voestalpine Camtec GmbH, also based in Linz, Austria, specializes in the manufacture of sliders and maintenance-free sliding elements for metalworking and is established in this segment as a leading partner for the automotive and automotive supplier industries as well as for the mechanical engineering industry. This is due to the combination of high quality and great reliability. The bar is set high with the continuous further development of the company's own solutions. For example, the service life of the company's own products is now significantly longer than the guaranteed service life of one million strokes. This also applies to the following reference example of the O-KS gate valves.

The requirement: Longer service life thanks to integrated dampers

In this case, the acronym O-KS stands for optimized compact slider. The name of the innovative solution is as simple as the principle used by voestalpine Camtec GmbH to impress in the production of sheet steel parts: forming, bending, punching and cutting - for all machining processes, the slide specialists ensure that the greatest possible force is transmitted in a compact size. To achieve this, the O-KS are equipped with high retraction forces and optimized handling despite their low complexity. In addition to an optimized design, the secret of the retraction forces lies primarily in the use of gas springs. In combination with its high load capacity, this makes the compact but powerful slide the ideal solution for machining high-strength steels. Although the O-KS are on average nine percent smaller than competitors' sliders, they stand out because voestalpine Camtec GmbH is the only supplier to install a damper as an integrated stop. This damping protects the material of the construction and thus ensures the aforementioned longer service life. In the previous models, dampers made of polyurethane were used for this purpose. However, in order to do justice to the "O" in the name, the slider also needed to be optimized in this area. To this end, the company contacted ACE Stoßdämpfer GmbH. "Our suggestion was to replace the PUR dampers with structural dampers from the TUBUS family. Their co-polyester elastomer material is clearly superior to the PUR material in terms of damping properties and service life," explains Hans-Jürgen Greindl, ACE's consulting sales engineer in Austria.

The solution: Effective deceleration up to more than 1 million strokes

Those responsible for engineering and product management at voestalpine Camtec entered into a careful coordination process with the specialists from ACE. "It is normal for us to be able to offer customer-specific solutions for special requirements. That's why we supported our customer with great commitment from the first design sketch to the optimally fitting structural damper through consultation and sampling," says ACE Product Manager Thorsten Kohnen. At the end of the coordination process, special structural dampers were selected that offer deceleration even beyond one million strokes.

The O-KS from voestalpine Camtec GmbH consist of just a few components, which simplifies the initial installation and maintenance work and also increases reliability © voestalpine Camtec GmbH

The ACE structural damper product series covers numerous other designs. Six product families with 140 different designs stand for a wide variety of damping properties, which can be axial, degressive, linear, progressive and radial. This variety in the absorption of energy is generated by globally unique production steps. The special feature here is the variability of the material. In contrast to the PUR materials previously used for compact dampers, dampers made of co-polyester elastomer are high-performance solutions whose service life can be more than 20 times longer than that of other damping solids in direct comparison. If even better damping properties are to be achieved than with TUBUS from ACE, the hydraulic damping solutions from the Langenfeld-based company are available in the form of industrial or safety shock absorbers. Their use is particularly useful when completely rebound-free stopping is required. However, this was not a decisive criterion for the requirements from Austria, so that the TUBUS represents the best price-performance ratio.

If customers do not order special types from ACE, up to 90 percent of the representatives are available directly from stock. Thanks to the highly resistant material, they also offer the advantage of performing reliably even in aggressive environments and extreme situations. They are resistant to seawater, chemicals, UV and ozone. Compact design and quick installation round off the package of benefits, ensuring that customers are satisfied as standard at the end of a customized tuning process, as in this case.

Author

Robert Timmerberg M. A.

Specialist journalist (DFJV), plus2 GmbH, 40210 Düsseldorf, http://www.plus-2.de

further links

Structural damper

More protection for a longer service life

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