TPT November 2007

C utting, S awing & P rofiling T echnology

the handling and packaging of tubes at the rate of up to 6,000 pieces per hour. These output rates have required the development of the SCP 90 (4 axis) robotic pick and place packing system. The cut pieces are collected automatically after measuring in a specially designed servo controlled holding area. The operator display allows the operator to choose the shape and type of packing that may be required, eg square pack into a box or a hexagonal pack into racks. As the tubes enter the servo controlled link, the required layer is formed and, once completed, raised for the magnetic ‘pick and place’ robot arm to collect and transport to the required pre programmed packing position.

SCF 90 Quatro cutting line with complementary washing system

Bewo, Netherlands, has secured an order to supply the first SCF 90 Quatro sawing line to its first customer in the USA. This order comprises an SCF 90 Quatro automatic circular sawing machine complete with integrated DB 90 wire brush deburring, SCC 90 non-contact optical cut- to-length measuring machine and SCP 90 (4 axis) robotic ‘pick and place’, two station packing system. The SCF 90 Quatro has the ability to cut up to 4 tubes at once (depending on the diameter). It employs a unique servo technology tube transport carriage system, which enables multiple tubes to be clamped and transported through the sawing machine at up to 4m per second (13ft per second) to the required cut length. The tubes are then clamped and cut without the requirement of length or target stops. The CNC control of the servo drive allows for pre-programming of the required cut lengths and quantities, via the machine full colour, graphic operator control. From this single multi functional panel the entire production line is controlled, including setting, operating, management and machine diagnostics. The Quatro has many features supplied as standard including proportional blade feed

control, blade management programs and an electronically monitored blade cutting position to reduce the effect of blade distortion on cut-to-length tolerances. Due to the extremely high output rates of the SCF 90 Quatro, all of the potential ancillary equipment has being completely redesigned to cope with up to 6,000 cut pieces per hour. The DB 90 wire brush deburring machine offers completely automatic setting of both the deburring length and brush height with servo drive control of the interlink between the saw and deburrer. A new option with the deburring machine is the use of a servo driven, high-pressure air nozzle unit to follow the movement of the cut length blowing out any loose chips from inside the tube. After deburring, the cut length passes through the new SCC 90 non-contact, optical length measuring system. Two high-speed camera units view both tube ends as they pass through the machine, calculating the exact length of each individual tube. These cameras are operated via specially developed software to recognise the tube ends and disregard any dust or debris.

› The machine comes complete with a non-contact optical cut-to-length measuring machine and SCP 90 (4 axis) robotic ‘pick and place’

In order to keep the cutting line in production, the pick and place unit can be supplied with two (or more) packing stations, allowing the operator to offload a packed station whilst the machine is still in production filling the following station. Another ancillary operation now available for exacting, chipless applications is a truly unique high-speed tube washing system. Although washing systems for tubes are not new, they all have the same basic constraint in that they cannot function much above 3,000 pieces per hour. The latest washing unit from Bewo has been designed specifically to wash and remove any debris from both inside and outside the tube and dry the tubes at rates of up to 6,000 pieces per hour. This results in a complete turnkey solution where all of the ancillary equipment, brush deburring, length measuring, tube washing and packaging can operate at the same rates.

Operation information is stored in the operator panel which gives a live full colour bar chart of every individual cut length, constantly updated SPC calculations. Should there be a tube out of length tolerance, the machine will automatically discharge this tube onto an optional scrap conveyor. and measuring cut-to-length tubes is only an advantage if the production line can facilitate Cutting, deburring

fi (Bottom) the SCF 90 Quatro sawing line for 6,000 cut pieces per hour; and (below) the SCFQ carriage clamp

Machinefabriek Bewo bv – The Netherlands

Fax : +31 13 4680201 Email : info@bewo.nl Website : www.bewo.nl

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N ovember /D ecember 2007