NC Servo Feeder Guide

What is the NC Servo Feeder?

A feeder is a machine that adds materials to another machine to process during a manufacturing operation. Industrial machine feeders are used mostly to feed chemicals or metal materials. Depending on the manufacturing process that a feeder is used, the design and configuration can be diverse. An NC servo feeder is the machine involved in a metal forming process. It feeds sheet metals or thin metal panels to the forming machine. Besides NC servo feeders, there are other types of feeders available for industrial purposes as well.

Regardless of the types, the feeders are incorporated mainly with cold forming machines such as hydraulic press, shearing machine, laser cutting machine, decoiler, straightener, and more. The materials processed by these machines have different properties, widths, thicknesses, and flexibility. The feeders that are included in the processes vary consequently. NC servo feeders are the machine that applies numerical control (NC) and servomechanism to achieve high precision and high speed during the feeding process.
 

NC System

The NC servo feeder is one of the NC machines used in the modern metal forming processes. NC stands for numerical control, which is the technology applied to control a system of a machine. The order or instruction to the machine is delivered in the form of data input, or say coding. Once the instruction is delivered through a computer to a machine, the machine executes the instruction by means of performing a series of machining operations. The NC technology is widely utilized in modern manufacturing and engineering industries.

The numerical control system determines the feeding rate of the machine. It can set the feeding rate to a high speed or low speed based on the application. In a metal forming process, the feeding of the sheet metal should be carried out based on the processing speed of the forming machine. A jam takes place if the feeding is too fast; an interruption occurs when the feeding is too slow. To maintain productivity and avoid machine and material damage, the NC system is required.
 

Servomechanism

Servo is a shortened term of servomechanism. Servo control in manufacturing and engineering refers to the automatic system that corrects the action of a machine. With the servomechanism, a machine is able to self-monitor its work, performance, and functionality during a process and revise the action in real-time so that errors can be avoided effectively. In order to achieve the self-monitoring and action-revision ability, a set of error-sensing units is included in a servo control system.

The error-sensing unit has sensors that continuously monitor the activities of a machine and send the feedback back to the control unit in the form of signals. By analyzing the signals, the control unit is able to control the mechanical position, speed, and other variables of the machine. An NC servo feeder can adjust the feeding rate based on the signals that the servo control unit obtains when the machine is operating. The input will then become the output speed of the servo motor. Therefore, the feeding operation can be more efficient and accurate.
 

Why is it Important?

Some might consider the feeding process as simple as continually inserting material into a metal forming machine and that it does not really take any skill or care to handle. However, it is not entirely the case. In fact, a feeding process is more complicated than people think it is to carry out. The material not only has to be put into the processing machine but has to be positioned correctly into the machine from front to back and from side to side. If the material does not enter the machine correctly, the end results can be poor. If the material is pre-painted, the ill-positioning may end up damage the coating.

Implementing the NC servo technology helps improve the positioning of the material and maintains a proper pace of delivering the material. To achieve the goal, the variables such as the feeding length, the material width, the die heights, and the feeding time are all monitored and controlled by the system. Consequently, the processing speed, flexibility, and quality of feeding can be improved. In general, the NC servo feeders can optimize the feeding efficiency, correct material positioning, and hence avoid negative end results.
 

Applications

NC servo feeders are commonly taken as the servo roll feeder because it usually works with roll forming machines. In such applications, people typically take the decoiler, straightener, leveler, etc. as a part of the feeding line because they prepare the metal coils for the machine to process. They are also called straightener feeders as a result. Other applications including the press line, cut-to-length (CTL) line, metal stamping line, to just name a few. These are all press-related processes and the feeder is the key part of the press feeding unit.

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