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Inside this issue: Die Design and Tooling | NALCO Update | Extrusion Designs | Cutting Services

GymGuru and its owner Brett Forsyth want Kiwis to reimagine what a gym is, who can use it and where it can be located. His company’s ultimate goal is to do away with underutilised gym memberships and instead create active communities in local parks.

After being inspired by a trip to China where a large number of parks had stations of targeted weight machines, Forsyth imported a few of the machines back to the Hawke’s Bay and tinkered away on them for a year to get them up to New Zealand standards.

The goal with GymGuru’s machines was to produce something that acted the same as an indoor gym piece, but was durable, easy to use and required no power. It had to go beyond using the user’s weight resistance however due to safety reasons the machines could not have a weight stack.

In what is claimed to be a world first, the outdoor gym equipment is controlled by adjustable electro-magnetic fields. GymGuru’s patented internal mechanism allows the user to easily and safely adjust the desired level of resistance, regardless of strength and body type.

Auckland Council came on board as a test customer, trialling the equipment in four parks across south-east Auckland. The equipment was provided to the council’s parks supplier at cost for the trial.

The team at GymGuru are passionate about both the importance of “Placemaking” (process and philosophy of activating spaces and places) in urban design as well as the numerous physical, social and mental benefits derived from exercise.

GymGuru believes its products will last well, the

Bringing Gyms To The Public...

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reason being the engineer designed and tested outdoor gym equipment is made with the highest quality materials such as NALCO aluminium extrusion which help to maximise longevity and safety, while also reducing maintenance.

For further information about GymGuru and its products, please visit: www.gymguru.co.nz

Aluminium extrusion is produced from solid dies which make solid shapes, and hollow dies which produce hollow or semi-hollow shapes. Combinations of solid, semi-hollow, and/or hollow shapes may be incorporated into a single die.

A solid die may have one or more apertures through which the alloy is extruded. The benefit of multiple apertures is a single die can produce multiple extrusions with each stroke of the press. A semi-hollow die extrudes a shape that is nearly hollow, partially enclosing a void, the area of which is large in comparison with the gap where the tongue is connected to the main body of the die.

Hollow dies take a variety of forms such as bridge, pancake, porthole, and spider dies. Each type of hollow extrusion die carries its own advantages and disadvantages. The choice of design, and even manufacturing methods, will depend on the profile, press and container size, and production requirements.

Checkmate!NALCO are always striving to be innovative, although not designed by NALCO this aluminium chess set was created especially to showcase what can be achieved with extrusions. Made of extruded aluminum, the chess set consists of 32 playing pieces on an aluminium chessboard. The King is an impressive 13cm tall with a 4cm square base, the Queen is 12cm tall, the Bishop is 11cm tall, the Knight is 10cm tall, the Rook is 9cm tall and each Pawn measures 8cm tall.

Solid die, to produce solid extrusions. Hollow extrusions such as a round tube are made from a porthole hollow die, which is formed by using the two dies above.

The most common types of hollow dies are the porthole and pancake. They typically are the most cost effective and easiest to manufacture, allowing the designer to be much more creative in the placement and shaping of the ports and feed. They are also the easiest for CNC Machining, which allows the die maker and die corrector to quantify any alterations for production improvements on future dies.

A critically important objective of extrusion die design is to have all parts of the profile emerge from the die at the same speed. To alter the speed of the extruded aluminium profile the bearing length can be altered. By making the bearing length longer the greater resistance will increase the aluminium flow, whereas a shorter bearing length will decrease the aluminium flow. Through effective design, the thick parts of a profile can be slowed through the use of longer bearings to match the speed of the thinner parts with short bearings.

The manufacturing methods and costs for a die can vary widely.

Die Design and ToolingInitial costs of aluminum extrusion tooling is usually a good deal lower than the tooling required for alternative technologies like die casting, steel roll forming, vinyl extrusion, impact extrusion, stamping or pultrusion.

A typical extrusion operation will make use of a die assembly, including the die itself, which, together with a backer is enclosed within a die ring, placed in front of a bolster with a sub-bolster behind, which are all held together by a tool carrier. The backer, bolster, and sub-bolster provide the necessary support for the die during the extrusion process. Depending on the complexity of the extruded shape, the total cost of the extrusion tooling may include charges for these supplementary tools.

The best combination of product performance, quality and cost is achieved when the product designer, the die maker, the extruder, and the purchaser recognise each other's requirements and work together.

Aluminium extrusions can be made into an almost limitless variety of shapes. The design flexibility of extrusions allows a great deal of functionality to be incorporated into extruded sections. This can help improve efficiency by simplifying assembly, and can also help improve the aesthetics of an extrusion. The extrusion shown illustrates some of the functions that are commonly incorporated.

However there are practical limitations to extrusion design. Some designs can be very difficult to extrude, while minor changes to an extrusion design can often yield significant benefits in extrudability and cost.

NALCO’s Cutting ServicesNALCO offer a wide range of aluminium sheet, plate and extrusions in diverse sizes and various grades that we can cut to your specific requirements and provide the most robust automated cutting service on the market.

We offer plate cutting for up to 100mm thick, a band saw for up to 305mm, and two CNC Routers for up to 25mm thick material.

The chart to the right show our cutting specifications in greater detail. Please contact us if you have further questions.

Aluminium Extrusion Designs

It’s good to see 2014 is looking strong based on a solid start to the year as well as positive feedback from

our clients. This was also reflected in the rush we experienced in January and Febraury, which saw new stock constantly arriving and seemingly going out the door at the same time. Our two CNC routers are still busy

NALCO Update

Band SawThicknesses up to 305mmWidth up to 500mmCutting tolerance +3 / -1mm

CNC Router CuttingThicknesses from 2mm to 25mmWidth up to 2,200mmLength up to 12,000mm

Plate SawThicknesses from 3mm to 100mmWidth up to 2,400mmLength up to 2,700mm

long been a pillar of NALCO’s philosophy that people are our strength. So remember if you have any aluminium requirements or are looking for aluminium solutions, contact your local NALCO Account Manager as we can fulfil your needs.

Steve Newland

and despite this busy period our capacity in this area has helped to reduce lead times for customers. Our router offer increases the accuracy and speed over other types of cutting methods and we see this as a competitive advantage for you, the customer. We offer the complete “in-house” service and can semi-finish aluminium components saving you time and money. Our focus for the upcoming year is to continue improving our customer offer through system improvements and our staff. It has