Face to face
Pressing matters
Right: Oliver
ISMR visits German press
Dörmann,
managing
manufacturer, Walter NEFF
director of
Walter NEFF
GmbH, and discusses new forming
GmbH
processes and technologies with
its managing director
ISMR: What are your plans, objec-
tives and targets for 2007?
OD: Our plans and targets are for the big presses
(up to 600 tonnes) and presses from 60 tonnes up to
1500 tonnes pressure. Complete production lines
and also, of course, hot forming are very important
for us. We believe we have a lot of expertise in hot
forming - we delivered our first hot forming press in
2002 and have delivered eight presses altogether to
mainly European customers.
The highlight for us is on hot forming but our
primary aim is to continuously develop in the
market. The Asian market is very important to us in
the future for the hot forming technique because
ISMR: Does this mean that you
we believe that we will have success in there
are concentrating more on press
with special techniques, as opposed to hydraulic
lines for customers, rather than
presses (mainly for automotive OEMs).
stand-alone press sales?
ISMR: What is so different about
hot forming presses and the proc-
OD: Our focus is on big presses and production
lines including robots, feeders, etc. We have robot
ess? What are the advantages?
suppliers – if we need to quote a customer, we
Why should customers invest in a
would select the equipment which best comple- hot forming press?
ments press line, put together a package and
quote the customer. We are seeing more of that
OD: The main advantage is that you can form very
type of business.
high tensile steels and thinner sheet. You must heat
We see ourselves, in the future, as an important
up the steel (about 900/950 degrees) in an oven,
supplier of turnkey production lines. These will
then you put it in a press using a robot, form the
gain more emphasis in the future and we see a
material and cool down the material very quickly,
niche for ourselves there.
so that you have a new part. In the pressure hard-
However, we also produce stand-alone presses
ening process, the material is formed by the press
for try-out work etc. and these have always been
while hot and then hardened by the cooled tool.
important for us. We made our name with smaller
This reduces the material thickness while improv-
presses and our customers know us for these types
ing its strength by up to 1800 Mpa.
of presses. Some of our 50-year old presses are
The main imperative in the automobile industry
still working for customers and we fully intend to
is to reduce weight. Super high-strength materi-
continue building smaller presses.
als are also particularly valued in the automotive
International Sheet Metal Review January/February 2007 17
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