Is an adjustable stroke press worth the investment?

Every penny matters whether you're a high-volume production facility or a small metal forming shop.

There is a close relationship between downtime and machine utilization and costs; when your press isn't working, the costs can become significant. It's worth every company's effort to track and measure maintenance, repair, and downtime costs in order to evaluate whether new machinery is worth the cost. In most cases, with an adjustable stroke press, it is.

We recommend an adjustable stroke press if you're searching for a new press that will reduce downtime and provide huge returns on investment.

ROI with an adjustable stroke press

To illustrate the value of investing in more efficient presses, let's go through an ROI example using real customer data from a study conducted by Sangiacomo Presses Americas in 2019.

A customer was using two 25-year-old presses 50% of the time each. They replaced them with one adjustable stroke press machine. They could now use one machine 100% of the time instead of two machines 50% of the time.

Remember that an adjustable stroke press is suitable for multiple types of forming because the adjustable stroke length allows for varying tool sizes.

This is why the customer was able to get rid of their old presses and just use one press machine at 100%.

Objective 1: What are the savings during the first two years?

Objective 2: What is the machine's ROI in savings?

Assuming machine replacement every ten years

$80k adjustable stroke press over two years:

• 1 press every 10 years: 2 x 80,000/10 = $16,000

• Opportunity costs, better floor space utilization: 24 months x $600 = $14,000

• Tool Maintenance, est. 1 service/year: 2 x $2500 = $5,000

• Repair costs, est. 1 incident/year: 2 x $1000 = $2,000

• Lost shift due to component failure, est. 1/year: 2 x $1000 = $2,000

• Maintenance cost, est. 1 shift/year: 2 x $1000 = $2,000

Total savings over two years on a press that costs $80,000: $41,400

What this means 

By replacing their old machine with an adjustable stroke press, the customer was able to pay off the $80k upfront cost in 4 years, leaving six years of pure profit.

With modest complex tooling and one shift per day, this is the ROI-inducing performance we typically see with our customers:

10-25% higher production rates

20-30% longer die life

10-30% reduction in downtime

Questions to ask yourself when assessing the ROI of an adjustable stroke press

* These final numbers were used in the above ROI example using real customer data

1. What does it cost you when a machine is not producing?

         This question addresses machine utilization and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

An adjustable stroke press is multiple machines in one, thereby freeing up floor space for more value-adding machine operations.
 
ROI Example: 10' x 20’ sq ft and machine utilized 50% more

• • • • Floor space: $6/sq ft per month
      • 200 sq ft x 6 = $1200
      • 50% x $1200 = $600*
•  
•     $600 savings from better floor space utilization

2. What does it cost you to sharpen and shim?

This question addresses tool life and maintenance costs per tool.

By using shorter strokes with an adjustable stroke press, the impact velocity is also lower, thereby reducing wear and tear on the tool and increasing its life up to 50% longer.

ROI Example: Doubling the tool life of a reasonable midsized tool that costs $5,000 to repair 

• • • • 50% x $5000 = $2,500*
        

         $2,500 savings in tool maintenance per tool

3. What does it cost you to repair a mechanical or electrical component that has prematurely failed?

This question addresses machine repair costs.

One premature failure of a mechanical/electrical component can cost $1000 in repair per incident. Sangiacomo builds commercially-available electrical components into all their presses, meaning less machine downtime and hoops to jump through when ordering replacement parts. 

Ready to invest in your operations with an adjustable stroke press that has proven to create ROI for our customers?