The advancements in press feed technology include space-saving line configurations, pilot release, transfer/progressive operations and scratch-free processing, i.e., can gently handle prepainted coil.

Even with these advancements, a press feed must meet three basic and important criteria to be successful.  Setup must be flexible. The press feed must deliver the material with sufficient precision into the tool and die, and it must feed at the correct time.

It’s important to note that press feed must not only move the proper amount of material into the tool, it must position it correctly into the die—front to back, side to side, and square with the tool.

The main features of the press are:

• A frame which support a ram or a slide and a bed, a source of mechanism for operating the ram in line with and normal to the bed.
• The ram is equipped with suitable punch/punches and a die block is attached to the bed.
• A stamping is produced by the downward stroke of the ram when the punch moves towards and into the die block.
• The punch and die block assembly is generally termed as a “die set” or simple as the “die”

We occasionally have a few select pieces of machinery available for purchase or can search the marketplace for the piece of equipment that best suits your needs. Our team is ready to help you with the right solution for your business utilizing press feed technology.

With over 60 years of experience and a real focus on customer satisfaction, you can rely on American Steel Products for your next project.

We provide professional renovation and installation services with a real focus on customer satisfaction. We have proven results for setting exceptional standards in cost control, planning, scheduling and project safety. We have experience that gives us a competitive advantage over others in our field.

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Copper can also be extruded.  A lot of air conditioning and refrigeration tubing is extruded into large diameter tubes and further reduced into small diameter tubes, ¼” or less.  Pure copper is difficult to weld because it takes the heat away from the weld quickly.  Some copper is made round, but is rolled into a flat shape.  Copper is rolled into a flat wire for electric motors and transformers.   This allows more windings on a transformer motor without increasing the diameter or size.  Copper has good corrosion characteristics under certain acids and alkalis.  One of the most important aspects of copper is that it has a high electrical conductivity.  Certain copper alloys have high fatigue characteristics.  Beryllium copper, as an example, is used to make ignition points and springs where continuous bending is necessary.

Another important characteristic of copper is that it has a very good heat transfer.  That is why it is very common in condensers and heat exchangers as used in air conditioners and refrigerators.  When copper is made into a tube, sometimes it has internal spiral grooves which doubles the surface area inside the tube and allows for better turbulence.  This improves the heat exchanger affect for air conditioning and refrigeration and reduces the cost of the product.

The number one use for copper is copper wire.  There are various copper alloys used for many other different products.  Copper aluminum alloys have a special advantage in phosphoric acid, which is a very difficult acid to contain.  As an example, copper alloys are used for making beer and sulfuric acid.  It is also used in transporting sea water.  One of the great uses for copper alloys is bearing applications.  Copper nickel alloys have advantages in high load bearing material.  Copper nickel magnesium alloys are used in radio resistors.  In rolling mill applications, much of the copper is continuous cast and reduced on a rolling mill.  Many square and rectangular bus bars are made from copper because of the high electrical conductivity used to transport high amps or continuous power throughout a building.  All of these products are rolled on a rolling mill.  This may be a tandem rolling mill where each rolling mill runs a little faster depending upon the reduction from one rolling mill to another.

Another use for copper, because of its heat transfer characteristics, is continuous casting of steel.  By water cooling the copper mold, high temperature steel can be poured through a mold on a continuous cast basis and made into a slab or ingot.  Also, copper foil is used in electronics and is sometime cladded to plastic for printed circuits.  There are many copper rolling mill applications.

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The speed and torque can be automatically controlled.  AC variable frequency drives can have a substantial amount of safety features and many drives can withstand overloads up to 100% for a period of time.  While the motors are inexpensive, compared to old DC motors, the drive itself is more expensive, but of course, this technology is improving with cost and quality every day.  One of the costs overlooked in AC variable frequency drives is regeneration.  For a rolling mill to be efficient, the uncoiler tension reel’s large motors may act as a brake, and the recoiler tension reel is under substantial tension.  Therefore, it is best to take the energy generated from the uncoiler to the recoiler.  This saves a substantial amount of electrical energy.

However, this becomes more complicated than an AC to DC drive.  Another disadvantage of an AC variable frequency drive is it does not have the ability to stop quickly.  Rolling mills have a tremendous amount of kinetic energy, and to stop the mill quickly, in the event of an accident or strip breakage, it is best to have a regenerative system to bring the equipment to a stop quickly.  This means you must have substantial expensive resistors and electronics in the drive system.

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In all cases, one of the main advantages of a cluster mill is the large back up rolls.  The back up rolls act as a heat sink because there is a considerable amount of heat energy going into the strip and the work roll.  Much of the heat in the work roll is transferred to the back up roll.  Having a large diameter back up roll allows the mill to run at high rates of speed compared to an old 20-high mill.  To do high reductions on high carbon or stainless steel alloys up to 50% in a single pass, considerable tension can be required.  This also reduces the amount of energy that the rolling mill itself has to perform.  To wind such high tensions, the tension reel sometimes has a solid alloy drum with only a gripper slot.  When winding under high tension, the endward radial forces on the drum are extremely high with each wrap and any type of mechanical wedge system becomes complicated and expensive.  Many warp radial forces add up so large that the coil can buckle on the inner wrap after removal.  This is referred to as a “mouse affect”.  When this happens, it is very difficult to position the coil onto the next operation such as the uncoiler.  Normally, when this happens, the coil is left on the solid drum and transferred to the next operation where it is uncoiled and put through a tension stand and recoiled under a lighter tension for slitting or annealing.  Also, when you anneal a coil that is wound under considerable tension, you get all types of distortion, such as stretched edges, center buckle, etc.  It is best to recoil under light tension before annealing.

The same is true at the uncoiler section to assure consistent tension.   Sometimes you need to uncoil a coil onto a drum which can be transferred to the uncoiler tension reel area.  Uncoiling going into the rolling mill is wound with tension so that the coil will not slip on itself which causes scratching.  Scratch marks may not come out during reducing.  Therefore, the coil must be made under tension before uncoiling for high reduction rolling.

Another method for reducing tension at the recoiler is to put in a tension level line.  On narrow mills running high quality, high strength, high carbon and stainless alloys, you may need to make a high reduction in a single pass with low tension to the final recoiler tension reel.  If this is the case, you may want to consider putting in a tension level system.  This assures substantial tension from the rolling mill and delivers light tension to the recoiler tension reel to prepare the coil for the next operation.  This also removes stretched edges and center buckle to assure a high quality, consistent product.  A tension level system normally has two entrance rolls and two exit rolls with staggered rolls to elongate the strip.  The exit rolls must run to accommodate the percentage of elongation.  In other words, if the elongation is 2%, the exit roll must run at least 2% higher peripheral speed than the entrance rolls.

To reduce high carbon and stainless steels, annealing is required because the material can start at 50,000 PSI and go to 300,000 PSI.  Once the material reaches 300,000 PSI yield strength, additional reducing becomes very difficult.  Therefore, it is best to anneal and reduce again.  Annealing is also a way to satisfy the customer’s requirements as sometimes they require, as an example, a consistent 50,000 or 80,000 PSI yield strength and annealing must be carefully controlled in an atmospheric furnace.

Sometimes extortion exists after a coil is annealed when the surface of the steel is soft.  With low carbon steels, if the material is extremely soft when uncoiling with little tension, cross breaks occur (wrinkles). Cross breaks are very common on low carbon steels, but can occur with any metal.  This can be a rejection by the customer because the cross breaks come through a painted surface.  On both sides of the rolling mill are polyurethane bridle rolls.  This allows substantial tension at the rolling mill and yet delivers low tension to the recoiler. This means the coil will be wound under the exact required low tension.  Bridle rolls in a rolling mill are becoming more common to control tension at the final tension reel or recoiler.

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