Quick change plates, die shoes, and other press plates
are often cut from mill certified ASTM A36,
AISI 1045, and AISI 4140.
Precision Grinding stocks a large inventory of
these grades of steel, in addition to also stocking HR Chemistry plate, 1020, A572,
A516, and A514-T1. On-hand A 36 inventory
includes sizes from 1/4" thick to 8" thick. Our 1045 and 4140 inventory include thicknesses to 4". Upon customer request we
inventory larger sizes and alternative grades.
Bolster Plates
Amongst presses, there are plates which strengthen, aid, reinforce or fortify these machines.
Originally defined and applied to "bolstering" or to supporting
the top or the lower plate of a press, the term Bolster plate
has gained a much broader definition in recent years. Many
sub-plates, machine bases, and adapter plates are now recognized
as Bolster plates.
Precision Grinding custom flame cuts thick machine plates to
engineered specifications from either a medium carbon
AISI 1045 or
AISI 4140 or from a mild carbon
ASTM A36 plate. We anneal the medium grade steels and stress relieve A36 plate in our own
on-site gas furnace before Blanchard Grinding them to a normal,
precision range of ± 0.005
thickness tolerances. The next step is to
set these plates upon one of our bar mills or CNC Machines whereby a
3D-Modeling program outputs, among others, the correct
drilling, tapping, reaming, cutting, and chamfering tools and
patterns. We routinely cut, grind & machine the largest of bolsters and
machine bases.
Die Sets and Metal Molds
In general, a
die set is built to punch,
cut, shear, form or stretch materials such as metals, ceramics,
and plastics to be used in manufactured parts. Whereas,
steel molds are used for die-casting and for molding plastic, ceramic and composite materials.
QDC - Quick Die Change Plates
Often times, stamping companies struggle with the downtime it
takes to change dies to run a different product or part. In
order to minimize downtime, we suggest using a quick change die system for presses that manufacture multiple patterns of parts.
A
Quick Die Change plate (QDC) can be attached to the bottom of
each die set, allowing your maintenance department to change dies much faster than without. By adding locator pins on your
bolster and locator notches on your
QDC Plates, machinists can
position the die set quickly. The QDC plate can be made a
standard size, while accommodating die sets of various sizes.
Reconfigurations and updates such as these may also allow you to
take advantage of automatic clamping.
Stripper Plates and Adaptor Plates
Precision Grinding also manufactures stripper plates. These
similarly patterned plates are slightly oversized to the part
being cut, stamped or molded, while also being under thickness.
As the name suggests, these strip away the parts during the
press cycle.
Various adaptor parts are used to adjust the shut height to
adjust the stroke of a press.
Whether you need precisely paired riser blocks or you need press plates
with simple or complex holes or intricately scribed t-slotted lines, count on Precision Grinding to manufacture die shoes, sub-plates,
parallels, risers, press side frames, and quick change plates
for your operation.
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