Beckwood to Retrofit Draw Forming Press

Beckwood Press Company (St. Louis, MO) has been chosen by Branch Manufacturing Company (North Branch, MN) to retrofit an existing 750 ton straight-side draw press that was originally manufactured by Pacific Press in 1979. Branch Manufacturing is an ISO 9001-certified job shop that specializes in building both large and small draw operations, stage tooling and progressive dies. Features of this press include a 60 in x 120 in bed size, 24 in of stroke and 48 in of daylight. The scope of this project includes completely redesigning and replacing all hydraulic and electrical components, adding two cylinders with 25 in stroke to achieve speed requirements, reinforcing the press’ structure to accommodate the new cylinders, and developing a custom HMI with recipe handling and data acquisition.

Beckwood service technicians will perform all work on-site at Branch Manufacturing’s 66,000 sq ft headquarters in North Branch. The project is expected to take five months from start to finish. Once complete, the rebuilt press will reach speeds up to 410 ipm, a vast improvement from the original 198 ipm and include an intuitive operator controls station. “We are really excited to work with them on this project,” said Tim Fairbanks, the president of Branch Manufacturing. “We currently are using an aging 750 ton hydraulic press that was in need of repair or replacement. After researching our options on the press, we found Beckwood and requested a quote on some different options. They developed a plan that will allow us to replace our current pumps, valves and operating system instead of buying new. We are still using the existing press during the build period instead of constructing a new press footprint. The down time during the retrofit will be minimal and with a great cost savings to us.”

beckwoodpress.com