Tailout Feeder Design Can Improve Operations

Within a coil line, primary feeders must be positioned out of the press column area and remain within the safety zone in order to accommodate the room needed to roll in bolsters for a die change. This can result in a significant gap, sometimes as much as 12 – 15 feet, between the feeder and the die, which can lead to a high material scrap rate. To solve this problem, a tailout feeder, also known as a micro- or secondary-feeder, can be positioned downstream of the servo-feed and is designed to telescope through the press columns into the die area, helping minimize scrap from the coil.  

COE’s tailout feeder offers the advantage of being retracted within the safety zone during die changes, but then can extend out close to the die when the line is running. By closing up this gap, less material is wasted. Additionally, COE’s design results in less material being left in the die, making the remaining material removal quicker and safer. 

The feeder extension can be manually operated via an air cylinder, or it can be extended by a motorized screw. Automatic set-up can be provided by adding a position encoder so the feeder extension is setup by the Job Recipe information. During normal operation the primary feed indexes the coil into the die. Once the tailout sequence is initiated, the secondary feeder takes over the feed cycle. 

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