Stamper Says
A dozen new Unist programmable roll-coater lubrication systems installed on most of the presses at Tier Two automotive stamper Clover Tool Manufacturing Ltd., Concord, Ontario, Canada, have put a dramatic halt to the significant amount of wasted lubricant that once plagued its pressroom. Gone, too, are related downstream costs resulting from applying excess lubricant—items such as waste disposal and added die-change time spent setting up sprayers.
One of 12 presses that Clover Tool Manufacturing outfitted with new roll-coater lubrication systems from Unist: an 800-ton link-motion PTC model with a 72 by 168-in. bed. The new roll-coater programmable lube systems have reduced lubricant consumption at the company by 41 percent compared to spraying, and reduced the cost for disposal by 60 percent. Clover Tool, which launched in 1979 as a tool and die shop in a modest 2000-sq.-ft. facility, began production stamping in the early 1990s, and today operates 20 stamping presses in a 175,000-sq.-ft. plant. It also operates a 30,000-sq.-ft. sister plant via the 2016 acquisition of Ultramet Industries, in Breslau, Ontario.