Adient Johnson Controls Installs Two Press Feed Lines

Dallas Industries (Troy, MI), a leading manufacturer of coil handling, press feeding equipment and controls for the stamping industry, has announced that the Adient plc (formerly Johnson Controls) facility in Athens, TN, has taken delivery on two complete compact LoopSelect SpaceSaver™ feed lines, along with two reels and retrofit coil guide rolls for existing systems. The new feed lines are 40,000 lb capacity each, with one being 60 in wide and the other 72 in wide.

These flexible Loop Select SpaceSaver feed lines feature a selectable loop control. The front loop mode allows processing of light gauge material at long feed lengths and higher speeds. The back loop mode allows processing of heavy gauge materials using a clock spring loop to form beneath the coil. Each of the feed lines purchased by Adient include a servo feed/piloting pull thru straightener model DRFXDS-8 with 8 in diameter feed rolls and nine 4 in diameter straightener rolls. Both lines were built on an Allen-Bradley, Ethernet-based control architecture and feature SyncLoop and ProfileSelect.

SyncLoop controls synchronize the feeder and straightener speeds to dramatically enhance the loop’s stability and control. Loop height set-points can be stored in job recipe, providing highly tuned feed and loop control for each job. ProfileSelect is a unique feed control system that is exclusively available through Dallas Industries. Most servo feed controls use a trapezoidal motion profile that creates quick, jerky motions that can cause slippage, material damage and added stress to machine components. ProfileSelect, on the other hand, uses a sinusoidal (cam motion) profile that results in a smooth feed motion and utilizes 100 percent of the press feed window, reducing stress on the material and the feed’s mechanical components.

The system also has AutoSet, a feature that automatically adjusts various axes based on job recipe. The AutoSet features in these two Adient lines include auto-adjusting feed passline, feeder/straightener edge guides and reel coil guides.

Dallas Industries’ full line of products includes conventional and compact coil feed lines, as well as servo feeds, air feeds, heavy-duty straighteners and coil handling equipment.

www.dallasindustries.com