Development and Performance evaluation of locally produced industrial bridge tooling press for brake-pad back plate production

Brake pad back plate production is highly uncommon in Nigeria among existing manufacturing industries. The few existing industries that have passion for this brake pad back plate production apply re-used methods of discarded brake pad back plates. This method failed to reveal the expertise in producers, hindered mass production the only advantage in this method is changing of waste to wealth accorded with time loss used for scouting for the used back plates. Hence the adoption of locally developed bridge tooling. To achieve this the internet was used to source for relevant update on press tool literature and design. Consultations were made with brake pad manufacturers and product users to gather data on problems associated with brake pad back plate manufacture and usage. Standards on die sets were consulted for vital data and information. The holes punched had an upper control limit of 14.53 mm and a lower control limit of 13.74 mm with an average value of 14,134 mm. The sample used as standard had punched holes whose diameters were 14.00 mm. The standard deviation of the punched holes was 0.1319 mm. After the development of this press tooling, its performance was evaluated not considering time loss involved. The three-stage progressive press tool can produce thirty (30) plates per minute; one thousand eight hundred (1800) plates per hour; and fourteen thousand four hundred (14400) per eight hours (8 hours) working period per day. These values support a high degree of efficiency of the developed press tool. The development of the press tool is a huge success as the results shown justify the set-out goals.