Formdeck DC 2 - Backing Plate

DC 2 Backing plate repair.

Machine new backing plate and repair clamp shoes.

Formdeck RM 6 - Cracked Forming Roller.

Cracked Forming Roller – 2/3 down the machine one of the forming rollers cracked in two. No spares were available and so another roller was produced.

Forming Roller still in the machine.

 Roller split in half.

Close-up view of the crack.

The outer edge reveals that this roller was cracked for some time before it let go.

This is evident from the very polished outer edge that was "cleaned up" by the abrasion from  debris in the crack.

Poor quality key-steel used in the key way allowed the roller to slip on the shaft and wear a bad grove.

This shaft was replaced.

The completed and rebuilt shaft with new key steel in all the rollers.

Notice the new Forming Roller, the old one sits on the wooden pallet to the right.

Formdeck DC 6 - Braking Resistor.

Electric Resistor Brake – this item was not fitted.
There was no brake system on the De-coiler machine to slow down or stop the coil. 
 We harvested a brake resistor from a spare control cabinet and wired it up. After setting the speed controller most of the problem went away. 

This is a DC Brake Resistor - not fitted to control system.

DC Brake Resistor in a similar machine.

Close-up view of the Resistor value.

Formdeck RM 6 - Movement

Machine dragged along – Yes, this happened when the de-coiling machine was not programmed to travel fast enough when the steel coil was almost empty

Formdeck RM 6 - Control Switch.

De-coiler Stop / Start switch broken – this has happened a number of times because of the harsh environment on the floor where the switch operates. 

Proxy sensor switch in the center of the two rollers has no influence on the machine operation.

The micro switch mounted on an angle is what starts / stops the machine.

This has been replaced twice and seems to last when placed on the angle seen in the photo.

Ulimately this set-up should be discarded and replaced with the system below.

This has proved to be the most reliable and maintenance free option fitted to other machines.

Here is the complete option.

Formdeck RM 6 - Guillotine Height.

Guillotine – Serious scarring on the underside of the product. 

Hoisting the guillotine assembly with 5 ton crane.

The entire guillotine was perched on this 14 mm threaded bar.

Nuts and washers were hopelessly to light and small for this application.

Holding down studs replaced with 16 mm high tensile threaded bar.

Manine rolling out clean produce - height set with laser.

Four pedestals machined to the correct height are sandwiched between the guillotine and the machine base.

This  now provides a higher standard of product and a more secure machine,

Formdeck RM 6 - Guillotine Guide Roller

Guillotine roller guide. – This failed and fell off the machine soon after the machine was put into operation

The lower bearing housing assemblies failed under load.

This provided no support or guide to the product as it approached the guillotine.

The bearing and cast housing were much to light for this application.

Adittionally the shaft see below was too short, just poking it's nose into the support bearing.

An entire new guide was fabricated with new bearings and housings.

Formdeck RM 6 - Pinching guide Rollers.

After some use of the machine it was noticed that the product was all of a sudden was not being folded firmly in the center.

After some careful investigation it was discovered that the Pinching Rollers were no longer aligned.

This required the disassembly of the top rollers and the Pinching rollers.

Removing the Pinching Rollers, spacers and shims.

3 Sets of rollers removed , all the center holding bolts were loose.

Notice L+R.  Well the center holding pins have either a left or right handed thread.

These were assembled in the wrong spot in the machine.

This caused the pin to work loose while rotating.

Swapping the pinching roller to the correct position meant they would  keep themselves tight while working.

Using a laser and line, we were able to realign the rollers and improve the quality of the product,

This was not easy, as the picture shows, many different heights and clearances need to be met.

Pinching Rollers in place an adjusted.

Formdeck - DC 6 Transmission Failure.

Cycloidal Transmission has broken right off it's mounting pedestals.

A closer look.

 Drive sprocket on the main shaft is much to small / ratio is poor for this application.

Destroyed transmission removed. 3.5 Ton coil of steel this set-up has to deal with is still in place.

New electric motor and transmission ready for assembly.

New base plate being fabricated for transmission and electric motor.

Motor and transmission assembly on it's way into the mill.