Page 18 - MetalForming June 2011

Materials & Coatings
Coil Grab for Densely Packed Slit Coils
Bushman AvonTec, Milwaukee, WI, has developed a coil grab designed for handling densely packed slit coils. The unit features an adjustable coil lifter with flex- ible lifting legs that fit between the coils and rotate into the ID for a safe lift.
When CoilPlus-Berwick Steel, a flat-rolled steel-serv- ice center in Columbus, OH, needed to find a way to insert and remove thin slit steel coils (down to 1 in. wide) from a storage rack, the new Bushman AvonTec coil grab
fit the bill. The coils are closely stacked in the rack with a narrow 1.5-in. space between them.
“The hooks are adjustable in 2-in. increments to permit handling coils of varying thickness,” says Larry Wood, CoilPlus maintenance/safety coordi- nator. “The main advantage of these lifters is that the feet rotate.”
To remove a coil, the hooks are low-
ered with the feet parallel to the coils.
Once the feet are in the ID of the coil, they turn 90 deg. so they can lift the coil with- out damaging it or neighboring coils.
Bushman AvonTec: 800/338-7810; www.bushmanvontec.com
Braner/Loopco CTL Line
Preparing Material for Laser Cutting
Dalco Metals, Inc., Walworth, WI, has installed a new stretch-leveler cut-to- length line capable of handling panel flat and memory-free 80,000-psi yield-strength sheet products. Dalco Metals provides numerous steel grades in slit coil, blanks and cut-to-length sheets.
The line, from Braner/Loopco, Schiller Park, IL, is targeted at customers that laser- cut parts and components. It features a computer-controlled hydraulic roller-leveler equipped with exchangeable thin-gauge and heavy-gauge leveling cassettes, to elim- inate strip cross-bow prior to the stretch-leveling process.
Braner/Loopco also has earned an order from material processor Dova, SA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The firm has ordered its second slitting line from Braner/Loopco, to process surface-critical coated coil. The line will be able to process 1525- by 6.3- mm material (as thin as 0.38 mm) and features a single-loop turret head and slit- coil packaging line. Also included is nonmarking roll tensioning and a shape-correction cluster leveler. Packaging capacity: 5-ton slit coils.
Braner/Loopco: 846/671-6210; www.braner.com
High Performance Alternative to Zinc Plating
NOF Metal Coatings North America Inc., Chardon, OH, and Curtis Metal Finishing Co. (Sterling Heights, MI, and Machesney Park, IL) have launched ZnCoat, a new fin- ish designed as an alternative to zinc plating for fasteners and small parts. ZnCoat, a zinc-rich coating for ferrous metal alloys, is entirely chromium-free and provides supe-
rior corrosion resistance with a thin film, without risk of hydrogen embrittle- ment. Compared to conventional zinc plat- ing, which is passivated using hexavalent or trivalent chromates that provide a thin-film passivation layer only on the sur- face of the zinc plating, ZnCoat fea- tures environmentally friendly passivation agents and corrosion inhibitors through- out the film. This makes the coating (reportedly) far less susceptible to early failure.
The coating is further enhanced by a self-repairing mechanism—if a coated fas- tener is abraded during installation, zinc oxides and carbonates form at a con- trolled rate at the damaged area, seal- ing the breach in the coating and restor- ing barrier protection. ZnCoat is applied (under license by Curtis Metal Finishing) to steel parts through a nonelectrolytic dip-spin coating process (which does not produce hydrogen as a byproduct). Curtis Metal Finishing:
586/939-2850; www.zncoat.com
NOF Metal Coatings North America, Inc.: 440/285-2231; www.metal-coatings.com
Automate Commodity Procurement
I Buy Steel, Livonia, MI, has created its free web-based Rapid Quote System (RQS) to automate the commodity-pro- curement process. Buyers can create, launch, track and review all RFQ activity through the use of RFQ templates, a sup- plier database, e-mail integration and an RFQ activity screen.
The system allows users to enter multiple line items into an RFQ. When completed, each template can be saved, edited and sent to multiple suppliers; use the integrated commodity supplier data- base to select eligible suppliers. Sup- pliers then receive e-mails with a secure link that they can use to respond.
For buyers that use multiple com- modities and geometries, RQS soon will support multiple commodities.
I Buy Steel: 734/956-0506; www.ibuysteel.com
16 MetalForming/June 2011
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