Page 34 - MetalForming June 2012

Tiny Slugs No Longer Inducing
Conveying Headaches
Faced with mounting rollforming-line downtime and nagging conveyor jams, a manufacturer of storage racks finds safe haven by investing in magnetic conveyors whose drive chain rides on oil- impregnated UHMW track.
Processing more than 50,000 tons of rollformed storage racks per year requires a network of magnetic conveyors to keep sheetmetal slugs—or punch-outs—moving throughout the facility and into scrap bins for salvaging.
That’s the scenario at Ridg-U-Rak, North East, PA, which expanded its manufacturing plant in 2007 to the tune of $6 million. As a result of the expansion, the plant, which manufac- tures storage racks used in a variety of industrial, retail and general ware- housing applications, upgraded one of its rollforming production lines with a new 200-ton Minster stamping press and a hydraulic cutoff press. It also added a press brake, a new 10-ton coil- handling crane, a 1200-ft. powder-coat- ing line and four new magnetic con- veyors. The plant’s rollforming lines include coil feeders and levelers, auto- matic welders, pre-forming stamping presses (hydraulic and mechanical), rolling mills, line welders, pull-out mills and cutoff press.
Magnetic conveyors used at Ridg-U-Rak are equipped with a unique internal drive system designed for low maintenance, quiet opera- tion and long service life. Scrap glides along the con- veyors’ stainless-steel slider plate—no moving external parts to jam, break or endanger plant personnel. Except for an externally mounted drive motor, the unit is self-contained and the conveyor mechanism is completely enclosed.
Shown below: Scrap that has dropped below floor level onto a horizontal con- veyor is lifted vertically into awaiting scrap bins.
32 MetalForming/June 2012
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Creating the vertical- and horizon- tal-shaped units that ultimately form a storage-rack system starts with coils of black or galvanized steel, measuring up to 18 in. wide and weighing as much as 20,000 lb., according to plant engi- neering manager Jim Gunter. Once the coils are offloaded, they are placed on one of nine rollforming lines where the steel is fabricated into a series of beams and columns.