ArcelorMittal Press Structure Analysis

ArcelorMittal Dofasco is a steel making company that produces a variety of steel products, including cold rolled, galvanized and tin plated steel and steel tubing. The Dofasco facility in Hamilton, ON, is solely dedicated to the production of flat rolled steels, which are usually wrapped around in coils for delivery. There are many departments in Dofasco Hamilton facility, and each has their own main duties in the process of steel making. The Research department at Dofasco has the task of ensuring high quality production by testing samples of produced steel, and examining errors in the f products. In 2012, the department required its punch press to be upgraded to be able to punch stronger (thick) sheets of steel. Therefore, the current structure and bolts shown in Figure 1 were required to be analyzed with the existing (25 ton) and proposed load, (50 ton) to verify if the original structure could withstand the load without its components yielding.

 

Andrés Cárdenas, a 3rd year co-op mechanical engineering student from University of Waterloo was asked to verify if the current punch press assembly can safely withstand the proposed 50-ton cylinder upgrade.