Dual Belt Tractor Feed handles fine wire and strip materials.July 15, 2010 -
Available as stand-alone unit or integrating with exiting process systems, Dual Belt Tractor Feed Attachment features wire size range of .004-.200 in., max pulling power of 25 lb, and max constant feed rate of 170 fpm. Material is guided between 2 pressure pads, one above and one below cog belts, which are molded from plastic material soft enough to flow around wire diameter, but not so hard as to damage or distort it. Pressure on belts is applied through adjustable jack screw.
(Archive News Story - Products mentioned in this Archive News Story may or may not be available from the manufacturer.)
Original Press release
TAK Enterprises, Inc.
700 Enterprise Dr.
Bristol, CT, 06010 7400
USA
New Dual Belt Tractor Feed Offers Versatility for Fine Wire and Strip Materials
Bristol, CT - TAK Enterprises announces the development and release of a new product designed specifically to feed fine wire and thin strip materials as a stand-alone unit or for integration within existing process systems. When dealing with fine wire in the .004"-.030" diameter range, pull-through feeding can sometimes be a challenge. Common solutions generally involve utilizing a roll feed with "V" grooves or custom radii ground into the feed roll OD's to match the wire diameter. It can be difficult to determine what configuration will be effective from both a cost and practical viewpoint. Considerations include selecting the number of feed roll pairs that will be necessary to provide enough grip pressure, and will the amount of feed roll pressure that must be applied to grip the wire to prevent slippage be such that it affects the straightness and/or distorts the wire?
Having encountered most of these issues, and in many cases, dealing with the negative results, we decided to develop an approach that would minimize or eliminate them. Hence the new Dual Belt Tractor Feed Attachment now offered by TAK Enterprises.
Particular success resulted when this unit was employed as the pull-though feeder on our standard Programmable Rotary Wire Straightener. When working with fine wire, all too often we found that even though the wire was dead straight as it exited the rotary straightening arbors, the feed rolls were inducing new stresses that resulted in out-of-spec end products.
The Dual Belt Tractor Feed (sometimes referred to as a "Caterpuller") can be integrated with most fine wire and strip processing operations, and offers features and benefits that make it an excellent choice for pull-feeding applications. The material is guided between two pressure pads, one above and one below the cog belts. Pressure on the belts is applied through an adjustable jack screw. The cog belts are molded from a plastic material soft enough to flow around the wire diameter, but not so hard as to damage or distort it. The force is spread out over a large surface area, so it has only minimal effect on the material being pulled, yet provides ample grip. If several different wire sizes are processed through the same feeder, the need to grind feed roll tooling and guides for each specific wire diameter is eliminated due to the nature of the belt material. It is simply a matter of determining the amount of pressure to apply on the jack screw to grip the material to be fed adequately without slippage. Depending upon the specific application, constant speed, variable speed, stepper or servo motors and controllers can be utilized to drive the Dual Belt Tractor Feed input shaft.
Providing products and services to the fine wire and strip processing industries for nearly 30 years, TAK Enterprises, an ISO 9001-2008 certified manufacturing organization, has developed a line of standard products and custom systems designed to provide economical and efficient solutions to common industry issues. Visit us at www.takenterprises.com to view the full line of equipment available.
For More Information on the Dual Belt Tractor Feed:
http://takenterprises.com/Products/PDF/LinearFeedDrives/StandardServoDrives.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUoKnv5zTZA
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