Page 32 - MetalForming March 2019

FABRICATION
Moving Matters:
What to Consider When
Selecting Metal Scrap Conveyors
Two experts discuss types, characteristics and how the right conveyor can improve overall operations.
BY JOE JANCSURAK, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Scrap-handling technology may not garner the same level of attention as advancements in presses, fab- ricating equipment and software, but it should. Simply put, efficient production requires efficient scrap handling. Choosing the right conveyor requires that metal formers clearly define their present and future conveyor needs and that they know their options.
MetalForming recently asked two conveyor experts at Kalamazoo, MI-based Prab Inc. (www.prab.com) and its sister company, KMC Global Controls & Automation (www.kmcautomation.com), to share their expertise. Between them, Bob Anspaugh, conveyor sales engineer at Prab, and Larry West, sales and automation manager at KMC Global, have 32 years of combined experience— Anspaugh, 12 yr. and West, 20 yr.— evaluating and imple- menting conveyor systems. What follows are their insights into conveyor types, advancements in features and con- trols, maintenance programs and the role of conveyors in Industry 4.0.
MetalForming: What do manufacturers need to con- sider when evaluating metal-scrap conveyors?
Anspaugh: First, many types are available. Steel-belt conveyors find use for any wet or dry metal stamping scrap: bushy material, die cast scrap, metal chips and turnings. Pivot belt conveyors handle small, sticky thin-
To ease operability of a conveying system, this operator screen fea- tures easy-to-read, clear commands and only the tools necessary for the operator. The buttons are large, the message block is short with big text, and color coding clearly identifies the event type (green for auto/start, yellow for manual conditions and red for fault/stop).
This screen allows a technician to review and perform specific functions on a piece of equipment. The “Indicators” section is designed to be like a dashboard, enabling the user to quickly identify the conditional states of componentry related to the specific piece of equipment.
30 MetalForming/March 2019
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