SMS group has received the Final Acceptance Certificate (FAC) for the commissioning of the fully automated forging line of Jiuli located in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. The SMX 900 / 18 MN hydraulic radial forging machine has a press force of 18 MN for each of the four press cylinders, enabling it to forge demanding aerospace materials.
"With the new SMX forging line, we can manufacture our products very economically. The high productivity and diverse product range give us the flexibility we need to respond quickly to changing demand conditions," explains Luo Tongwei, project manager at Jiuli.
Jiuli is a manufacturer of seamless steel and special alloy tubes used in the petroleum, chemical, natural gas, electrical and other industries.
High-quality technology and operating systems
In addition to the SMX 900 / 18 MN as the core machine, the plant consists of two fully synchronized eight-ton forging manipulators, a loading and unloading device, a hot cutting machine and a cooling basin. The handling manipulators are integrated with the line control system for automated unloading of heated cast ingots from the furnace to achieve high process efficiency while maintaining technological parameters when forging high-temperature materials.
The customer has an automated stitch plan calculation through the installed ComForge® Technology Suite software. This provides a forging strategy calculated on the basis of a comprehensive material database and the specified machine-, material-, geometry- and product-related parameters.
The SMX forging line supplied is equipped with a condition monitoring system that records all target and actual variables during the forging process. The system enables data analysis of machine conditions and operations and can be used for fault diagnostics, process optimization and quality assurance.
"SMS group has had partnership relations with Jiuli for more than ten years and has supplied various plants during this time. We are very much looking forward to further good cooperation," said Jia Hui, Senior Sales Manager at SMS group.
