Ttarp indust_gft-529.qxd

Designed for Success
Based in Buffalo, NY, Ttarp designs and manufactures equipmentsuch as die cutters, laminators, band saws, and splitters for a wide range of fabricating applications for foam, plastic, rubber, textiles, adhesives and other non-metallic materials. The company, whichhas been privately owned and operated since 1978, prides itself on the high quality equipment and personal service it provides to itscustomers, primarily the small businesses that owner Don Pratt firmly believes are the key to a strong economy. Always looking to build both ease of use and high reliability into their fabricatingequipment, Ttarp engineers have upgraded the controls on their machines throughout the past decade with products from Whedcoand GE Fanuc, a unit of GE Infrastructure. Ttarp’s most recentupgrade features a GE Fanuc S2K that combines precision motionand machine control into one compact unit. “With the help of GE Fanuc’s products and technical support, our No Small Order
company is able to compete against the larger businesses in our Ttarp’s customers are generally small fabricators with limited maintenance and technical support. As a result, the machines they Chet Pulaski
purchase must be easy to operate and maintain. “Our customers just Electrical Engineer and Service Technician
don’t have the time or the personnel to be on the phone with our Ttarp Industries
service technicians, so we have to make our machines very easy touse and very reliable,” explains Chet Pulaski, Electrical Engineer andService Technician, Ttarp. And, like all other OEMs, Ttarp has to jugglethe performance requirements of its machines with the need to keepcosts down.
Ttarp Industries Designed for Success
Ttarp has kept pace with these demands over the years by steadilyincreasing the level of automation on its fabricating equipment. Itsoriginal clutch belt motion systems were replaced about 10 yearsago with a stepper control system from Whedco, now part of GE Fanuc. While Pulaski was happy with the ease of use andprogramming of the drive, he decided recently to upgrade to a singledevice that would perform machine and motion control functions.
“We were not only looking to make installation and maintenanceeasier, we also needed a more powerful device that would provideeven greater precision, reliability, and speed,” says Pulaski. With thehelp of Ttarp’s longtime local automation distributor, Hughes Hitech,Pulaski installed a GE Fanuc S2K resolver-based servo system onTtarp’s Steel Rule Die Cutting Press and Automatic Vertical Saw. Keep It Cutting
Available in 25- and 45-ton capacities, the die cutting presses run
in conjunction with a continuous cutting belt, which is controlled by
an S2K. An operator enters cutting information into a text-based
GE Fanuc touchpad and feeds the material into the press. The
press indexes the length that the operator entered with the servo
drive to ±.020.” This allows parts to be cut out with very little scrap,
which is essential to keeping costs down. An optional sensor mode,
controlled by the GE Fanuc touchpad, automatically positions
sheets and die-cuts the desired amount of parts out of the sheet.
The Ttarp Automatic Vertical Saw cuts low- and medium-densityfoamed plastics, and features an adjustable traveling fence forprecision alignment. The S2K, working with a GE Fanuc touchpadoperator display, controls the cutting and fence movements.
“Accurate motion is crucial to the precision of the cut, and we havebeen very happy with the results provided by the S2K,” saysPulaski. Servos with a Smile
Ttarp’s customers have been happy as well. Pulaski reports that
service calls and training time are down. “Our number one goal at
Ttarp Industries is to design a machine that is simple but reliable and
easy to operate and maintain, at the lowest cost for our customers,”
says Pulaski. “By combining the driver and PLC into one unit, the
GE Fanuc S2K makes that job easier.”
The S2K will soon be making life easier for those who purchaseTtarp’s newest piece of fabricating equipment: a mini press thatoffers a less costly but still highly capable alternative to Ttarp’s largerdie cutters. Equipped with the same GE Fanuc control configurationas its larger counterparts, the new press is the latest example ofTtarp’s commitment to the small businesses that play such a vitalrole in keeping the economy moving.
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Source: http://www.kerrcoautomation.co.uk/docs/topics/22/ttarp_gft529.pdf