Kind & Co. has commissioned a new forging press. With a maximum pressing force that now reaches 3,000 t, the ingots that are melted in the factory, can be more efficiently forged into round bars, flat bars and discs. This modern unit replaces the previous 2,000 t forging press that had since 1973, reliably produced more than 1 million tons of high-grade forged metal parts.
The challenge for the Kind & Co. engineers was to revamp the press without impairing the ongoing production operation and to fit the approximately 1,000 t stronger heavyweight into the existing foundation of the old press without any elaborate foundation work. Furthermore, auxiliary units like the hydraulics and control also had to be overhauled. Everything went smoothly and was completed in a mere three weeks - for modification measures of this scale, that is a record-breaking modification time. At the beginning of the year, the giant with considerably more pressing force was successfully put into service.
The expectations placed on the powerful press have already been more than fulfilled by the Czech supplier ŽĎAS, a.s. located Zd´ár nad Sázavou. The forging process, controlled in an ultramodern control room and starting at over 1,200° C, provides a uniform microstructure in the blanks which were brought up to forging temperature in the forging furnace - an important prerequisite for heavy-duty steel grades.