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NSK Ball Screws in Osterwalder Powder Presses

NSK's S-HTF range of ball screws enables leading powder press manufacturer Osterwalder AG to use high-precision and cost-effective electric servo drives instead of conventional hydraulic servo drives in their machines.

Osterwalder has a history of more than 130 years with headquarters in Lis (Switzerland). Its powder presses are widely used in various industries, including the production of gears for automotive transmissions and metalworking tools such as drills and cutting inserts. The metal alloy powder is poured into the mold and under pressure takes the desired shape. The intermediate product is then sintered to obtain the required hardness, wear resistance and accuracy characteristics.

Osterwalder now offers a wide range of machine tools including, launched 5 years ago, the CA-SP Electric and CA-HM Electric series of direct drive powder presses (DDT), which include NSK servo motors and ball screws.

Thanks to DDT technology, powder presses can achieve significantly higher precision than when using hydraulic drives. In addition, ball screws have increased rigidity compared to hydraulic cylinders. In this way, the products produced by servo-electric powder presses are more uniform, and their material properties can be controlled with increased precision. Thanks to this, they managed to push the hydraulic drives prevailing in this area.

Osterwalder AG originally used NSK's HTF series ball screws in servo-electric direct drive presses of the CA-SP Electric and CA-HM Electric series. These ball screws allow very high travel speeds combined with increased precision and rigidity. At the same time, each unit allows the transfer of extremely high axial forces, and wear is minimal even under high loads and short cycles. The average cycle time for powder presses is 3 seconds.

Transition from HTF to S-HTF

DDT drives have proven themselves over the last 5 years: first they were used for pressing forces up to 160 kN, then up to 640 kN. However, manufacturers needed bearings and ball screws with a long service life.

NSK has developed the S-HTF series of ball screws with higher dynamic load ratings in the same dimensions and significantly longer service life. Such technical characteristics were achieved thanks to the use of NSK's patented TF (Tough Force) material, which can not only withstand high loads, but also provide an optimal ratio of hardness and strength through a special heat treatment.

Tests carried out have shown that the TF technology results in a 3x increase in service life and a 30% increase in dynamic load rating compared to the HTF series.

World premiere of the new powder press

Taking advantage of the S-HTF ball screws, Osterwalder developed and introduced the OPP 2000, its first 2000 kN servo-electric multilevel powder press. It is able to provide positioning accuracy up to 1 µm and move along predetermined movement profiles, which greatly improves product quality.

The new multi-layer press is suitable for economical production of engine components, power tool parts, etc. The energy consumption of such servo-driven presses is five times less than that of 20% of the energy consumption of hydraulic presses. For press users, this savings is a strong argument, as a typical Osterwalder customer operates up to 50 powder presses at the same time.

NSK also supplies Osterwalder with TAC series angular contact ball bearings for axial support of S-HTF ball screws. These bearings are specially designed for high precision machine tool applications. They are usually installed as complete system units for axial support and linear movement.

Podshipnik.ru, the leading supplier of industrial bearings in Russia, is the official distributor of NSK and offers the entire range of products of this famous brand, including bearings and ball screws.

You can check the availability and cost of NSK bearings and ball screws in a warehouse in Moscow, as well as order their delivery anywhere in Russia by phone +7 (495) 543-89-93 or email [email protected].