For more than 40 years, T&C Stamping has churned out stamped parts in Athens, Ala. Since 1985, the company has acquired a large customer base across several sectors of stamping – producing everything from appliance and automotive parts to electromechanical components.
Throughout those four decades, T&C has seen the industry change rapidly. In recent years, however, company leadership has seen an increase in overseas competition, compelling companies like theirs to become more efficient and, in turn, competitive. When asked what the biggest challenge is for metal stampers today, Weston Coleman, T&C’s sales and marketing director, says offshoring tops the list.
Offshoring defined
In recent years, the idea of offshoring has become a kitchen table topic – even for folks not involved in the manufacturing industry. While it flew under the average American’s radar for plenty of years, offshoring was put under a microscope during the Covid-19 pandemic as supply chains broke down and access to common products diminished.
In a nutshell, offshoring is when a company moves its manufacturing overseas for cheaper pricing. While the process allows a company to sell its products at a better price for consumers, it can negatively impact the local labor market and put a company in a vulnerable position if supply chain issues arise.
Regardless of the risks, the benefits of shifting manufacturing overseas have paid off for many of the United States’ biggest businesses. This, however, has left many Tiered providers, such as U.S. metal stampers, in a difficult position. Since the late 1970s, offshoring has been – and continues to be – a significant hurdle for U.S. stampers, like T&C.
With the ongoing threat of losing business to overseas providers, company leadership realized that they needed a big change – something that could better position them to compete in the modern market. Ultimately, the goal was to become more attractive to more customers.
After much contemplation and a lot of serious research, T&C decided to purchase a SEYI SD2-330, a 330-ton servo press. Based on the team’s extensive research, the idea was that the servo press would give them the competitive advantage they sought in the U.S. stamping market.
“A servo press is certainly one way to be more competitive,” Coleman says. “With the technical aspects of the servo, there are features that allow you to be more efficient and run at higher stroke speeds.”
More output
Pricing is one of the most obvious reasons that U.S. companies go abroad for input parts and materials. Lowering prices stateside, therefore, is how T&C battles the offshoring trend. When margins narrow, the company uses specific features of the servo press to create a higher volume of parts than a mechanical press ever could.
T&C’s servo press typically runs in pendulum motion or a custom profile in which the stroke maximizes its speed during the nonworking portion. Both profiles reduce the stroke’s nonworking time so that more time is spent stamping parts. Efficiency, after all, is the name of the game.
“Sometimes the stroke speed in a servo press is as much as 30 percent faster than in a traditional mechanical press,” Coleman says about the output increases the company has gained.
Smaller dies
T&C has also found it can save significant amounts of money by using shorter dies for parts with significant draws. With a mechanical press, a progressive die is required to perform deep draws, leaving several stations idle throughout the process. These extra stations lead to large, expensive dies.
Conversely, a servo press provides companies like T&C with the ability to dwell and hold a part during the draw, eliminating the need for the extra stations. Since investing in the servo press technology, T&C now uses shorter, less expensive dies.
“We’ve been able to shorten the dies,” Coleman says, “which has allowed us to reduce costs. That’s another way we’ve been able to combat offshored tooling prices with the features of the servo press.”
As an added bonus, smaller dies are quicker to set up and easier to store. As time passes, more overlooked benefits are bound to surface.
Better parts, fast setups
In addition to higher output, the servo press allows T&C to produce higher quality parts than those of its competition. With a fully adjustable stroke, operators can tailor each stroke to the die. This results in parts with fewer burrs, draw marks and other imperfections that are more common on a mechanical press. For many customers, the improved part quality is the justification for using T&C versus going overseas.
For T&C, the perks of the servo press also include more uptime through efficient die changes. In terms of setup times, the SD2-330 has 200-job recipe storage in the PLC, which is a huge timesaver. Operators can easily change the die and program the stroke to the saved profile for the die.
“One of the features we love is the ability to program the machine to a certain job,” Coleman says. “As soon as we set a die, we select the program for that particular job. We don’t need to tweak or manipulate the press. It’s already programmed and knows what to do when the die is in the press.”
This feature also eliminates the need to constantly program the press without compromising the stroke profile. As a result, uptime at T&C has skyrocketed thanks to the faster die changes.
Service and support
Faster production is great, but what if the new servo press experienced an issue? Knowing downtime can be costly, T&C wanted to invest in an equipment supplier that emphasized service.
“The presses are fantastic,” Coleman says, “but the biggest reason we chose Seyi was the service.”
Accessibility is Seyi’s defining factor. During and after the installation, T&C noticed that Seyi technicians were present the entire time until the plant was running parts. Even after five years, the Seyi service team is as available as it was during the initial machine installation.
“Dave from service is always available to take our call,” Coleman says, “and he has a personal relationship with our maintenance team. We don’t get put on hold. And we aren’t calling a service center in Asia. We’re talking to the Seyi team in Tennessee.”
For many press suppliers, service after installation is an afterthought. Seyi, however, takes pride in not only supplying the press but also providing an experience of excellent service throughout the life of the press. T&C has experienced this firsthand.
Benefits tenfold
After just one year of owning the SD2-330, T&C experienced a host of benefits beyond the company’s initial expectations. The following year, therefore, T&C purchased a second servo press to maximize its advantage. Today, these two presses are a major selling point when prospecting new business.
According to Coleman, T&C’s investment in Seyi goes down as perhaps the best investment the company has ever made. Coupled with its skilled and reliable team of personnel, the company looks forward to continued growth well into the future.
“Our servo presses certainly give us a competitive advantage,” Coleman says. “Additionally, it signals to our customers that we’re ready to be their best supplier and that we have a plan for the future.”
