Coil feeding system for presses: choosing a looped conventional line or a close-coupled compact line, and specifying the decoiler end

01

Conventional loop line or close-coupled straightener-feeder: floor space against rate and surface

Gabrielle Dion, in The Fabricator, explains that the main difference between a conventional coil line and a close-coupled straightener-feeder is floor space: the straightener-feeder can be one half to two-thirds the length, because it drops the floor pit through which a conventional line runs the strip between straightening and feeding. The pit lets the uncoiler build up excess slack, loop storage, for a smooth transition; a straightener-feeder has none, so the press may have to stop and wait for material, it is limited in the combinations of feed length and continuous press rate in a good share of cases, and where demand exceeds its capacity its control must be designed to make the straightener-feeder master of the press cycle rate. The starting and stopping of its straightening rolls can also bruise painted or plated strip, so she points Class A surface work toward conventional lines. [1]

ARKU makes both: its CompactFeed compact-form lines level and feed in one machine, for heavy gauge strip of 4–12 mm (0.16–0.47 in.) and fineblanking presses, with a hinged leveling unit for cleaning and quick threading, threading from below and 7–13 rollers; its EcoLine long-form lines decouple the leveler from the feeder with a loop to allow high speed and continuous leveling, for coils up to 25 t and strip from 0.5 mm, with 9–21 rolls. [3]

Editorial calculation: a free loop of radius 1,000 mm, as in Schuler's long-space lines, holds about π × 1 m ≈ 3.1 m of strip in its half circle, and 1,300 mm about 4.1 m, which is the slack a conventional line can feed without stopping the straightener. [2]

Give the supplier the strip material, thickness and width range, surface class, coil weight and diameters, the feed lengths and press strokes per minute, the floor length and pit possibility, threading and coil change time targets, and whether the line or the press sets the cycle.

02

The decoiler end: coil weight, outside and inside diameter, mandrel expansion and loading

Schuler's long-space coil feeding lines for strip widths from 300 to 800 mm list three basic models with maximum coil weights of 3, 5.5 and 7.4 t, coil outside diameters from 900 to 1,600 mm, a coil inside diameter of about 508 mm with a 470 mm expansion range, strip widths up to 450, 650 and 800 mm, thickness from 0.5 to 4 or 6 mm, 70 mm straightening rolls, and loop radii of 1,000 or 1,300 mm; options at the decoiler include a coil loading cart, a driven mandrel, a double decoiler, a pressure roller, automatic draw-off and threading devices. [2]

03

Send the strip, press and floor data together

Paste it into your enquiry below or into an email to a maker, then replace every bracket.

Strip: [material; thickness; width; surface class]
Coil: [weight; OD; ID]
Press: [feed lengths; strokes per minute]
Layout: [floor length; pit or no pit]
Decoiler: [loading cart; driven mandrel; double]
Control: [line or press as master]

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