New Economical Servo Controlled Feed and Cut System

BRISTOL, Conn. - May 29, 2019 - PRLog -- As new challenges are presented, we constantly try to develop systems that will satisfy the requirements and at the same time provide cost effective  solutions.  A recent project demanded an accurate and repeatable strip feed and cut to length system that could process long lengths (8"-42") of tempered steel strip from a coil, providing a minimal burr cut at a high throughput rate.  Feed length changes had to be easily accomplished with minimal down time between set ups.  These cut lengths are used in a constant force spring application that required an end forming operation on both ends.   The tempered strip therefore had to be annealed for approximately 1.5" on each end.  To accomplish this, an RF heating system and coil was positioned ahead of the feed and cut system.  A 3 inch long section would be heated during the cut cycle while the material was stationary, and the subsequent feed would position the 3" section in the center of the cut station.  To operate in conjunction with the feed system, there would need to be a pause feature provided within the feed controls.  The timed pause function also had to be adjustable to allow for different time cycles, depending upon the specific material that was being processed.

 Standard Novo Pneumatic Cutter Head

By selecting an off-the-shelf, commercially available drive, controller and touch screen interface, customizing the programming to suit our application, and integrating our standard feed drive and cutter mechanism, we were able to put together a very economical system that met the customers needs and satisfied the throughput and accuracy requirements.  The resulting software/hardware package is now offered as a standard control system for all of our roll and dual-belt feed systems.

The unit pictured here is equipped with one pair of feed rolls.  Depending upon the pull force requirements, two and three pairs of the standard feed roll modules can also be utilized.  Also pictured is the standard manual cam lever grip mechanism to apply feed roll pressure.  This can be substituted with a pneumatic cylinder system that allows for automatic opening/closing of the feed rolls that may be necessary for other applications.

Some of the basic system control features are as follows:

Þ System can operate as the master or as a slave module through a simple toggle switch on the touch screen

Þ Toggle between inch/metric operation

Þ Jog forward and reverse

Þ Adjustable Feed accel/decel values

Þ Adjustable timed pause function

Þ Feed roll diameter compensation

Þ Feed rate adjustable to 40 in/sec

Þ Standard auxiliary fault I/O

Þ Batch counter

Þ Cumulative parts counter

Contact us at the following email addresses:

      sgriffing@novoprecision.com

Or, click here to link to our website:

https://www.novoprecision.com/products/servo-feed-control...