Forming technology specialist Hatebur Umformmaschinen AG is marking its 90th anniversary year in 2020; at its founding in Neuss am Rhein, Germany, in 1930, the group introduced a turret-type forging press it had developed. The business relocated to Basel, Switzerland, in 1933, and later to Rheinach, Switzerland in 1968.
In 1950, Hatebur introduced the world’s first fully automatic, three-die progressive header with a horizontal tool layout.
Hatebur’s expertise in developing hot-forming technology began to grow in 1956, when the group’s engineers introduced a machine — the AMP 30 — suitable for manufacturing ball-bearing races; previous hot-forming machinery had been used only to form nuts. One such machine, the AMP 70, started production in 1965 at SONA BLW Precision Forge in Remscheid, Germany, and was updated after 50 years of service and more than 600 million parts formed.
The production process involves four forming stages, a stroke rate of 50-80 min-1 and a total forming force of 15,000 kN, to produce parts with diameters up to 145 mm and weights up to 5,000 g. The updated and reprogrammed machine, the AMP 50 XL, is producing a broad range of hot-forged parts with diameters up to 104 mm and a maximum weight of 2,000 g. Typical products are gear wheels, axles, flanges, and roller bearing rings.
Forgers have adopted the Hatebur HOTmatic hot-forming machine series to produce hot precision parts in high volumes (e.g., wheel flanges, gear wheels, rolling bearing rings, and nuts), and the latest variant – the HOTmatic AMP 20 N, introduced in 2018 — was developed specifically for hot-forming cam lobes.
Since 2016, Hatebur has included the Carlo Salvi SpA organization, a cold-forming machine builder headquartered at Garlate, Italy.
Established in 1939, Carlo Salvi started producing flat die-thread rollers in the 1940s. In 1952, it introduced its first single-die, double-blow header, capable of operating at rates of 400 parts per minute. In the 1970s, it started producing a line of headers for producing semi tubular or fully tubular parts. The first single-die, double-blow header equipped with linear wire-feed, quick-change capability, and electronic interface was launched in 1999.
In the weeks ahead, Hatebur and Salvi will introduce a servo-electric driven transfer unit for which the grippers also are driven by a servo motor and can be individually adjusted for opening and closing. A new servo-electric, linear wire-feed system ensures precise material infeed with a volume variation of less than 0.3%. This linear infeed requires no wire stop, eliminating contact marks, with quick changeover and easy maintenance.
And, a new servo direct-drive makes it possible to control press ram movements detached from the transfer unit. With versatile die and punch ejectors, it is available for numerous new applications.