Sophisticated new equipment uses automated technology to eliminate human error and increase efficiencies
Above: Top and bottom left: The slitter head uses a robot to set up tooling offline. Above: The automating separator disc setup mechanism, including the robot manipulator. Left: The slitter tooling turnstile.
March 2023: Sophisticated new equipment uses automated technology to eliminate human error and increase efficiencies.
Automation is not an option, but a necessity,” says Cesar Martin, director of engineering for the Salico Group, which entered the U.S. market in 2015, partnering with SES LLC, Alliance, Ohio, to form a joint venture with the experience and full-service capabilities needed to support machinery sales in the United States.
Martin says automation has become “an integral part of our product offerings. Many customers are looking at the big picture—cost savings, reduced mistakes, tooling traceability and increased efficiencies.”
“Automation brings consistency into the operation,” adds Mike McGuire, North American sales manager for SES-Salico. “It reduces the possibility of mistakes or variability in quality that results from different operators’ abilities. We all know it is difficult to find and hire skilled operators, but with automation, the training time required to bring an operator up to speed is drastically reduced.”
Before joining forces in 2015, both companies built their reputations in equipment design. SES specializes in heavy-duty mill equipment, “everything under the crane hook,” says McGuire, as well as rebuilding processing lines, and the Salico Group designs and builds all types of metal coil processing lines.
“At SES-Salico, we develop our own automation,” says McGuire. “We have four different groups that develop and integrate the automation software, and Salico builds the complete robot systems in house.”
BIG PICTURE
Service centers and toll processors now need the capabilities to process higher yield strength material, which “is difficult to process and level on older lines due to the physical characteristics of the metal,” says McGuire. A processor may need to upgrade some of the different components in the processing line to be able to properly, slit, cut or level the higher-yield material. “Tolerances of the finished strips and sheets have also gotten much tighter.”
That’s where automation can have a big effect on processing speed and accuracy, and adding robotics is not as expensive as it used to be. Martin points out that in the early days of automation, “costs may have been a little above the typical solutions,” but today, “there is no difference” in some cases.
Companies like SES-Salico, he says, are working to make the previous technologies obsolete, such as implementing mathematical models for strip leveling (which would replace the need for an experienced leveler operator) and developing slitter head tooling robots for setup.
McGuire notes that 3 percent of all setups made without automated assistance are incorrect, and a robot system eliminates this issue. In addition, SES is working on other innovations up and down the line.
LEVELING SUPER POWER
In its quest for engineered-driven, automation- driven and service-driven solutions, SES often partners with other experts in the industry. Beyond its joint venture with Salico, the company also has teamed up with BTU, which provides the BTU bridle to the new SES Superleveler.
“The Superleveler produces strip tension of 280,000 pounds per foot and drives the material through the line,” says Mike Mc- Guire, North American sales manager for SES-Salico. “Standard pinch rolls, S bridles and plunging bridles limit your equipment capability. Elongation can be 5 percent, and it is guaranteed to be 3 percent. The standard for the industry is 2 percent.”
The enhanced tension of the line produces a flatter product while releasing all internal material stresses. The design of the BTU bridles allows the unit to open completely, eliminating threading problems and dramatically increasing the productivity of the line. “This leveler can process material from less than 0.110 in. to 0.510 in. thick at speeds up to 600 fpm with plans to go to 1.000 in thick,” McGuire says.
Dan Cullen, SES vice president for outside sales and business development, says three Superlevelers are in operation, with “customers reporting a 20 percent increase in productivity and superior product coming from the lines.”
“The new automated tension control in our slitting lines provides individual slit mult tension that operates at the same speed as the material running through the slitter,” McGuire says. “No drag, no marking, just tight coils.” He notes that the controls system of any SESSalico slitting, CTL or tension leveling line allows the operator to enter the material to be processed “and the machine system will automatically set the correct parameters for proper processing. This takes away any guesswork, and the operator does not need to be an artist to make a good, finished product.”
SES-Salico also has developed and supplied a slitter pit loop doubler to reduce the necessary depth of the pit “but still provide the proper loop needed for good slitting practices,” adds McGuire. “It is an intuitive system that reads the depth of the slit strips and moves into the proper position to avoid strips being too tight and also to avoid hitting the bottom of the pit.”
NEW AND UPGRADED
McGuire says SES-Salico recently installed a slitting line that can run with just one operator, who is overseeing the loading of master coils, threading, slitting and offline packaging. The line also has robot tooling, which allows the same operator to “push buttons to unload and reload the next setup without touching a tool. There is one additional person used as a helper to be sure the incoming master coils are staged and to keep the banding equipment loaded with enough strapping.”
Companies also can turn to automation to solve the push-pull between safety and production. “We are currently involved in several projects featuring anthropomorphic 6-axis robots, mainly in packaging sections either for slitting or cut-to-length lines,” says Martin. “These have been traditionally labor intensive, but now many of the processes are being automated either by specialty units or by robots to replace operator functions in dangerous areas such as pallet feeding or spacer positioning between coils.
“We are just starting down this road, but multiple applications are candidates for this technology,” he says.
Many of SES-Salico’s automation designs and developments can be incorporated into an existing line, notes McGuire, including new control systems, automated tooling changeover, automated separator disc placement and packaging line upgrades.
Whether new or retrofit, SES-Salico has the facilities and expertise to equip customers with the processing needs they need to meet customers’ demands now and into the future. When Salico’s leaders decided to enter the U.S. market, they wanted a full-service partner on the ground. SES has four separate facilities located in Canada and the United States to service all new Salico-built systems as well as a complete rebuild/refurbish group to provide upgrades or repairs. “SES’ business is roughly 30 percent repair and upgrades to existing processing lines in the metal markets.” McGuire comments. “It is a large and important part of our business. SES is well known for its ability to re-engineer processing lines to meet the new demands of the marketplace. This includes complete re-powering of old lines and updating the strip tensioning systems. MM
