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A steel coil slitting line is usually referred to as a slitting line or a sheet cutting line. It is a metal-processing line where a wide sheet steel coil is slit into narrower or shorter straps. Though called a steel coil slitting line, such a processing line is sometimes used to process sheet metal coils other than steel. That said, stainless steel is the most common material a slitting line processes. The shorter or narrower steel straps will go into other metal-processing lines to produce the end products.
The steel coil slitting lines implement the compound console-style machine called steel metal slitter to cut the steel coil into straps. The steel coil fed into a slitter is called the master coil and the metal straps produced are called mults. Mults come in a variety of specifications based on the end application of the products. By adjusting the knife pairs and cutter on the slitter machine, the length and width of the mults can change.
:: Read more : Slitting Machine Cuts in Precision
The steel coil slitters are sometimes called the cut-to-length slitting machine; the steel coil slitting lines are also called the cut-to-length slitting line as a result. In such a process, a steel coil slitter serves as the key role, as it is responsible for cutting the master coil into several mults. In some cases, a slitter machine works with a recoiler at the final stop of the line to collect the mults and sort them into coils, which is why a slitting line is known as a coil-to-coil slitting line.
Based on the material, the workload and the application a slitting line is set up for, a steel coil slitting line may contain machines arranged into several stations with the automatic control system, or it can be a simple slitter machine to which the master coil is fed manually by operators. For the simple manually-operated slitter machine, the entire slitting operation completes on a worktable. As for the heavy-duty slitting lines for mass production, there is the decoiler, coil feeder, slitter machine, press cutter, recoiler and other safety or guiding accessories in the line. In this article, the functions of a few primary components in a slitting line are addressed.
The decoiler is referred to as the uncoiler at times. It often works with a coil feeder to insert the sheet metal into the slitter machine. The decoiler, as its name indicates, decoils the sheet metal from a coil car and sends it to the coil feeder. The coil feeder is to flatten the master coil and make sure the sheet steel is fed into the slitter evenly. In some steel coil slitting lines, the decoiler and coil feeder are integrated into one single machine. In this case, sheet flattening accessories are equipped to take the place of a coil feeder.
The sheet slitter machine is the main component in a slitting line that performs the actual slitting tasks. The slitting machine is constructed with rollers, slides, gauge adjustment, knife pairs. The parts and accessories may vary based on the model of the slitter, but the knife pairs and adjustments are necessary. The knife pairs cut the sheet metal into narrower mults. Most slitter machines apply roller blades to cut the sheet.
The number of mults determines the knife pairs set on the machine. The gauge adjustment, or an adjustment slide, controls the width of the mults that come out of the machine. The gauge adjustment also determines the width of the master coil the slitter machine handles. In a highly-automated slitting line, all these adjustments are controlled by a computerized control unit. The adjustments are arranged manually by operators with a light-duty simple slitter machine instead.
The sheet slitter machine is crucial in a slitting line not only because it slits the coil, but controls the quality of the result. One of the problems that take place in a slitting process is the rough edges of mults. The rough edges occur when the knife pairs are not properly set or when the blades are dull. To avoid such problems, the blade clearance and tolerance of the adjustment should be inspected in advance before each run of production. The mults enter the press cut after being slit.
The press cutter is the machine that dissects the mults into the desired length. This is where the cut-to-length part comes from. Though usually driven by a press machine, a cutter can operate with other types of power sources. Even though a cutter usually follows a slitter in a steel coil slitting line, it could precede the cutter in some rare cases. In a modern slitting line, it is common for the cutter to combine with a slitter machine. With multiple stations integrated into one, the work cycle and workspace it takes are reduced.
A recoiler collects and recoils the mults at the end of a slitting line. The setup of the recoiler should synchronize with the slitter machine so that the mults can be well recoiled. The recoiler is important in specific slitting processes where long mults are produced. However, it is under most circumstances excluded from a slitting line. Since the mults produced in the small workshops or most cut-to-length slitting lines are rather short, there is no use of a recoiler. After the mults recoil, they are packed and sent to the end production line to process.
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