One of Hottest for Carbon Steel Single-Chain Tapered Roller Supply to India

KOHLER is a one-stop source for levelling technology and the associated periphery including for handling, levelling, cutting, washing and stacking sheet metal. The company’s extensive process and application expertise concerning customer requirements was fully exploited in this project.

The customer, a specialist in surface finishing and aluminum processing, places great value on the surface quality, because the material has sensitive high-gloss or reflective coatings. The surface of the cut blanks must not have any impairments.
The loaded and secured coil has been carried to the decoiler by a movable coil loading car and lifted to the level of the mandrel so that it can be transferred to the decoiler shaft and secured in place. The strip can be decoiled either from the top or the bottom. A pressure arm above the decoiler mandrel secures the strip radially.

A strip lead-in device serves to ensure the safe insertion of the strip into the machine. When processing very sensitive and thin material, the leading end of the strip can be safely fed into the machine with the help of conveyor belts with an integrated vacuum suction system.
The pinch rollers that follow downstream keep the strip under tension between the machine and the decoiler and also provide the drive for feeding the strip.
The laminating system is used to apply a protective film to the top surface of sensitive material before the strip enters the levelling machine so that the levelling process will have no effect on the quality of the surface finish. The film is applied uniformly with the help of guide rollers.

Any wrinkles in the film smooth themselves out as the strip advances.

The core of the line is a 21-roller levelling machine with a cassette changing system developed and patented by Kohler. This combined changing system was developed specifically for the needs of operation with constantly changing products or materials. It allows the entire levelling cassette to be changed quickly, thus expanding the possibilities for using the levelling unit, for example by using a second cassette with a different roller diameter.

Moreover, the upper or lower half of the cassette can slide out of the machine individually, thus allowing a quick inspection of the levelling roller surface. The advantage is that the cause of any marks on the coil material resulting from dirt particles on the levelling rollers can be quickly found and remedied.

The integrated roller bending unit makes it possible to eliminate edge or center waves for achieving top levelling results.

The levelling machine itself operates using driven levelling rollers to advance the strip as well as in pull-through mode.

Another set of pinch rollers is used to further convey the strip. The rollers are rubberized and therefore gentle on the surface finish.

If needed, the rubberized rollers can be cleaned at a maintenance access point to remove dirt particles from the surface of the roller.

The protective film applied before the levelling process can be removed again with the help of a foil rewinder.

A paper laminating device can be used to apply a layer of paper to the bottom side of the material.

This maintenance access point serves to provide access to the shear to help minimize machine downtime for cleaning and servicing or for changing the blade.

Another set of pinch rollers serves to advance the strip to the shear. A measuring wheel measures the length of the section of the strip that has been advanced.

The first sections cut off at the leading end of the strip are diverted to the scrap disposal unit. The swivelling table returns to its home position automatically.

The double-eccentric cut-to-length shear with automatic cutting gap control continuously cuts the strip as it is being advanced. This shear design increases the production speed of the line because the continuous strip feed does not need to be interrupted.

Vacuum suction conveyor belts are used to transport the cut blanks to the stacker without damaging the surface finish.

All processes are controlled and monitored at a central operating panel. An integrated camera system makes it possible to visually monitor the surface quality during production.

KOHLER’s newly developed vacuum stacking system allows for a gentle and smooth stacking of blanks. The stacking operation with flying blank release or start/stop mode can create stacks of larger or smaller size without damaging the blanks. Thus, several small-sized stacks optimized for packaging can be stacked on one pallet.

A chain conveyor transports the stacks to an unloading station. In full operation, several pallets are transported to the unloading station at the same time. The pallet weight is automatically recorded after packaging. Together with the production data, this information is transmitted to an ERP system that closes the order process.

An integrated labelling system provides all relevant product data for shipment to the customer.