TPT September 2012

Technology News

New loading trolleys IN order to satisfy the growing problems of worldwide customers, OTO has finalised the project and manufacturing of several types of trolleys having the purpose of collecting the coils from the coil storage (turnstile for example) and loading them on to the decoiler mandrel to enable a quicker and fully automated coil loading cycle. Dedicated software enables the control of the movements of the trolley from the coil storage to the decoiler’s mandrel with extremely smooth acceleration/deceleration to enable a safe stability on the coils and the same is the case with narrower ones.

The OTO Mills system

The coil is held from the top and from the bottom: the closing force of the top retainer is controlled through a servovalve according to the coil size, with the aim of reducing possible ovalisation of the coil, mostly the case when packing coils with light strip thickness.

The device will enable a coil loading cycle in shorter time as well as safer working conditions in the entry area, in addition to the fact that the continuous presence of the operator is not usually required. In addition to the above function, the new trolley generation has the ability to orientate the burr in the desired position (for example by rotating the coils by 180°), thus avoiding the operator having to do this operation.

OTO Mills – Italy Email: info@otocompany.com Website: www.otocompany.com

Mobile emission spectrometer improves performance

THE name Spectrotest has been associated with on-site metals analysis for over 30 years. Technical advances in the latest generation of the instrument from Spectro Analytical Instruments bring performance for the most demanding analyses and deliver outstanding ease of use. Challenging tasks such as the identification of low alloy steels are made routine, in this case by the ability to measure low carbon levels in steel down to 500ppm using arc excitation – in air – with the Spectrotest’s CO 2 scrubbing system. When higher sensitivities are needed for carbon, like the identification of L grade stainless steels, or when elements like phosphorus, sulphur, boron or tin are required, the plug in UV probe is quickly and easily fitted. The Spectrotest can even identify duplex steels by measuring nitrogen content using this probe. In aluminium alloys the Spectrotest can measure magnesium at low levels, as well as lithium and beryllium. The new lightweight transport trolley is easy to move around and provides an ergonomic working platform and fatigue-free operation. Analysis results are typically available in a few seconds

Spectrotest in action

allows users to benefit fromSpectrotest’s increased effectiveness. The plasma generator requires less energy, making it possible to perform hundreds of measurements with a single battery charge. This allows double the number of samples in arc excitation mode and nearly four times the number of samples in spark excitation mode during battery operation. Spectro Analytical UK Ltd – UK Email: spectro-uk.sales@ametek.com Website: www.spectro.com/test

and are displayed on a bright, 15" TFT LED screen. Spectro software features like ICAL, which automatically re-standardises the instrument with a single sample, or APF-Plus, which selects the calibration method based on the identification of the base metal, greatly simplify operation. For materials identification there is access to the Spectro Metal Database, or the user’s own library can be created using the Grade Library Builder, which is a part of the Metal Database software. The instrument’s plasma generator

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S eptember 2012