Unipres Realizes New Hot Press Technology with Triple Productivity

Unipres, Japanese major automotive component maker, announced on Wednesday the firm developed an innovative hot press method which shows triple productivity compared with the previous hot press method. The new technology was cooperatively developed with Nippon Steel Corporation, a shareholder of Unipres. Unipres explains the new method’s operating time is 8 SPM (strokes per minute) against the conventional hot press method’s 2-3 SPM.

High tensile steels are adopted to more than 50% of car body parts in recent days. Hot press technology rapidly cools heated steel sheet as it is formed, hardening the material. The technology realizes high strength and high precision for steel parts compared with cold press technology. Meanwhile, productivity was lower than cold press due to hardening lead time.

Unipres’ new method cools heated steel sheet directly by water, discharged from the surface of the die. The die is well formed as parts’ shape while the die’s surface is specially processed by Nippon Steel’s technology. The general cold press method represents operating time of 20-25 SPM at multi impression die while the new hot press method enables 16 SPM. Productivity largely improved and approached to the cold press method.

Unipres plans to introduce the new method for large-lot body parts ordered by the main customer, Nissan Motor. The firm also examines the new method introduction at overseas sites where new hot press lines are scheduled to be constructed.