Pneumatic feeder replacement

3t3d · Jan 9, 2017

I have a customer who makes plastic strips, with sprocket holes, like a film strip.

They currently have a crank driven punch press with the strip fed by a pneumatic feeder.
They are planning to replace the punch press with an electronic punch press, and replace the pneumatic feeder with ...???....

A sprocket drive sounds ideal to keep the registration of the sprocket holes, But how would you start it on a new roll? It couldn't feed the part until it had sprocket holes ...
Catch 22, chicken and egg...

They make different products, and switch the lines over to different sizes...

An electronic linear drive for the feeder would be great, they need to adjust the feed to a couple thousands, ( .05 mm ) or less.

A drive roll (friction drive) might be best, can we expect that sort of accuracy?

They currently adjust the pneumatic feeder with a set screw..

So, any suggestions for linear feeders, drive rollers, etc?

Looking at a PLC to control this and the downstream/upstream machinery.
Should help out for setup and changeover.

Thanks for any direction for the servo driven linear feeders, or drive rollers, and experience.

capocoreyollo · Jan 9, 2017

Not sure how to integrate a servo drive into a PLC control system, but I know you can control steppers and get feedback from an encoder so maybe recreate a servo drive with a stepper/encoder and friction roller? or maybe you can find a pre-made servo drive that you could integrate into the press controls. It would probably require a bit of trial and error/math to figure out how many steps = how much linear motion, but they should be able to dial it in to the accuracy they require. Throw and HMI on there and although it would require a good amount of program design, you could eventually create a log of "presets" for different sizes. Those idler rollers from the belt sanders that knife makers build might make a good feed roller.

Any reason why they want to move from pneumatic feeding? You could control one of those with your PLC pretty easily.

KilrB · Jan 10, 2017

3t3d said:
I have a customer who makes plastic strips, with sprocket holes, like a film strip.

They currently have a crank driven punch press with the strip fed by a pneumatic feeder.
They are planning to replace the punch press with an electronic punch press, and replace the pneumatic feeder with ...???....

A sprocket drive sounds ideal to keep the registration of the sprocket holes, But how would you start it on a new roll? It couldn't feed the part until it had sprocket holes ...
Catch 22, chicken and egg...

They make different products, and switch the lines over to different sizes...

An electronic linear drive for the feeder would be great, they need to adjust the feed to a couple thousands, ( .05 mm ) or less.

A drive roll (friction drive) might be best, can we expect that sort of accuracy?

They currently adjust the pneumatic feeder with a set screw..

So, any suggestions for linear feeders, drive rollers, etc?

Looking at a PLC to control this and the downstream/upstream machinery.
Should help out for setup and changeover.

Thanks for any direction for the servo driven linear feeders, or drive rollers, and experience.

All of our presses are equipped with servo roll feeders.

The smallest adjustment is .001".

Most are from PA Industries.

PA Industries Feeding Equipment

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Pneumatic feeder replacement

3t3d

Diamond

capocoreyollo

Aluminum

KilrB

Stainless

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