The bar loading with a person is done on the last cut, the saw measuring system retreat gives just enough time to remove drop and position new stick good-nuff for the sms to catch it. Tiger straps have vises on the end to hold the material. Positioning is 2500 to 3000 ipm, I can hit the foot pedal as the final seek is happening and the vises auto close and head starts movement and cutting. As soon as the cut is finished I hit advance on the stop and the lag time between that and head up is about perfect on 1.5 pipe (1.875 od). As stop moves forward I can grab part, pedal down, enter length for next part if different, and stack / mark part.
The fully auto saw without auto bunk we have is brand new pedinghause/mebA band saw with the shuttle vise positioning. It has to run stupid slow feed rate in auto because it can not adjust cutting on the fly, each stick needs fully programmed, all switch miters need trim removed and interaction with control between cuts if this happens. This is saw is well over six figures. The shuttle vises also slip (material moves slower than vice). - you can not program an extra 1/16 per 20’, or change counts per inch because you do not know when slip is going to happen. So you need to watch the material positioning and vice slip... this is wasted time human time.
Automated bunks like voortman... money and as I sit here and hit ok 4 times per part (eight axis coper) and comparing it to controlled autos manual feed bunk I can outrun the coper 5 to one on mid size beams - with a saw.
Fully automated saws can work for one part, then a cam system can do that. The part unload/stack/marking and loading new bar is still human at the saw. An operator will also have feed dynamically changing in the part.
I go thru bundles of 64 pipe and tube, most jobs have less than 30 repeated parts, automating can be done for an extreme cost and you would need a custom solution. Saw companies for the most part now do things that sell- not work. Only when you talk geek with blade engineers and saw engineers all the weird problems of a lights out saw come to life.
Yes, you need automated vises, powered feed (a lot of power, a blade wants to cut), and a nc stop/feeder. Motorized head swing is really nice. Integrating all of it together is a holey grail of saws. I wish foot pedals came on all saws.
Again, cutting hundred parts a few hundred pounds almost anything will work. Moving to thousands and tons which is more op operation if they have full time saw guy then every second, ergonomics, and speed to enter/program starts to count. This is when semi auto is still better than auto. Cold saws are handy and don’t take they finesse of band saw, I like water cooled abrasives for the same reason. Band saws are faster though.
The self centering vise and tigerstop on the scotchman was an exponential shift in production. Dollar for dollar hard to beat for small stock and mentally non challenging on cut- you can use brain to work on ergonomics and speed- now I just normally dance head bob at it because I move as fast as low hanging adjustments will take me.
