Schuler and its affiliate Farina demonstrated what the companies say is the world’s largest mechanical forging line to an international group of 60 forging experts. A live video stream transmitted from the production site in Suello, Italy, highlighted the features of the 16,000-ton press, which has a stroke of 600 mm, in action. The press will be delivered to Germany’s thyssenkrupp Gerlach. Due to its Scotch Yoke design, the press has a total height of 14 meters – making it much smaller than conventional presses. This enables high off-center loads and a high number of strokes. From the outside, the GLF-type machine looks like a conventional press, including the flywheel, clutch and crown gear. However, the Scotch Yoke directly works in the slide, which is the reason for the compact design.

Schuler installed two forging lines, including the dies and furnaces, in China. The screw press and the crank press forge aluminum chassis parts fully automatically. Screw presses from Schuler feature a press force of 250-28,000 tons. The water-cooled servo direct drive transmits the torque of the motor without losses and offers a high level of precision, operational reliability and economy. The 750- to 16,000-ton crank press is suited for mass production. Depending on the specific requirements, the press frame and drive system are designed for high manufacturing precision and high production rates.

Thyssenkrupp will build an advanced forging line at its Homburg site in Germany’s Saarland region. The company will invest approximately $90 million in a new 12,000-square-meter facility to produce forged front axles for trucks. The centerpiece of the highly automated and digitized forging line will be a 16,000-ton forging press measuring 32.8 feet (10 meters) high and weighing 1,700 tons. According to thyssenkrupp, the press will produce 360,000 forged components per year and will not be restricted to one product. In addition to front axle systems, the line will be able to produce crankshafts and other forged parts as required.

The Schuler Group acquired Farina Presse of Suello, Italy, a manufacturer of presses and forging lines. With its acquisition of the northern Italian engineering specialist, Schuler rounds out its own product portfolio in the field of forging and single-stroke presses. Farina Presse will gain access to Schuler’s global distribution network for its products and will continue to operate under its own brand name. With press forces between 750 and 8,000 metric tons, the machines produced by Farina Presse cover a wide performance spectrum. The company mostly supplies automotive customers in Italy, Spain and Germany.

Automotive supplier Chongqing Lianhao Technology of China ordered four mechanical forging lines from Schuler.

Metal Technology (MTI) achieved production-readiness on a new, state-of-the-art forging line at its manufacturing facility in Albany, Ore. 

Through savvy management and an aggressive product-development strategy, China’s Shandong Wenling Precision Forging has grown from a private company making simple forgings into a publicly traded enterprise making sophisticated precision automotive forgings.