PROBLEM
P-K Tool and Manufacturing is an industry leader in stamping, punching, and wire forming. A newly developed deep draw process called for a five-station die to form a round cup from 0.050-inch thick cold rolled steel (CRS). The company conducted a comparison of untreated drawing dies and one treated with FortiPhy™ XVD technology. But not on purpose.
Solution
Toolmaker Rodney Reams had sent one of three deep-drawing rings used in a large progressive die to be treated by Phygen. During a production run, lubricant stopped flowing for 10 minutes. Most of the tooling was badly galled, except the ring treated with FortiPhy XVD—even though it was doing the most stressful forming on the line.
It really is possible
parts and counting
P-K replaced the damaged rings and put the line back into production. They now have run more than one million parts without polishing or touching up the original FortiPhy treated ring, even though it once ran for 10 minutes without lubrication. According to Reams, FortiPhy XVD exceeded expectations on how tough an ultra-endurance surface treatment could be.
“A previous commercial coating allowed only 24 strokes/minute at maximum lubrication before galling occurred. With FortiPhy XVD, production runs at 42 strokes/minute—a real payoff!”