Constant innovation

Accuracy, dependability are built into every custom component

or K&S Machinery Corp., Linden, New Jersey, success can be attributed to a long standing practice of getting to know the customer in order to identify their very specific needs, and being able to translate that into a component or entire processing line that meets or exceeds expectations.

All of the equipment it builds is custom, meaning that it is rare for a duplicate piece of equipment to go through its manufacturing plant.

One of K&S Machinery’s customers had a dilemma. The customer was slitting light-gauge product 60 inches wide and when they ran heavy-gauge, narrow-width material, the arbors deflected due to the increased load.

To solve this problem, K&S Machinery developed a multi-width precision slitter head. The proprietary design can reduce the lockup (the usable part of the slitter arbor) to process heavier gauges while eliminating any arbor deflection. The outboard housing moves inward through a quick and seamless manual or semi-automatic adjusting screw arrangement.

The slitter head starting lockup ranges from 24 to 60 inches wide to handle light- and medium-gauge materials (0.005- through 0.080-inch thick). It can then be adjusted to process coil from 12 to 36 inches wide with gauges 0.187-inch-thick and heavier.

By adjusting to the narrower width, the arbors are more supported, which eliminates arbor deflection and gives users the flexibility to slit light and heavy gauges on one slitter head while using the same arbor diameter and tooling. The K&S Machinery-designed slitter stand is also equipped with a two-speed drive system, versatile entry table and exit pinch rolls.

The manufacturer upgrades its designs whenever needed. For example, the latest multi-width slitter head design includes K&S Machinery’s proprietary angular contact bearing arrangement in which the main housing uses a “Quadruplex” arbor bearing configuration that includes six precision bearings supporting each arbor. This ultra-precise arrangement assures maximum axial rigidity and minimum shoulder runout (0.0001-inch or less).

Hardened bearing spacers are included; they can be removed and lapped to obtain ultra- precise arbor shoulder alignment. This bearing design—along with the ultra-precision shimless tooling supplied by K&S Machinery’s sister company United Tooling Corp. using Neuenkamp slitter tooling—produces extremely accurate and dependable setups.

The tooling is so precise, +/- .000040-inch and better in most cases, coupled with the Ultra Precision Slitter Head measuring under 0.0001-inch shoulder runout, produces a superior finished width tolerance along with edge quality. Customers find that this combination increases their productivity and bottom line.

Adjustable speed

The slitter motor drives a two-speed gear box allowing the material to move through the slitter head for example 150 feet or 300 feet a minute, explains Pete Korcusko, co-owner and director of engineering for the machinery manufacturer. “You can use the same horsepower to cut heavier material at a slower speed and lighter gauge twice as fast.”

The outboard housing position is adjustable. “The ball screw adjustment can be manual or semi-automatic. It moves the outboard housing in and out over the arbors, so you can reduce or increase the lock-up.” By doing that, “you can run heavier but narrower material when you adjust inward.”

“Our customers run a lot of nonferrous: copper and brass and stainless alloys. Our pinch roll arrangement acts as a pass line roll and can knock down the burr,” he notes.

Application

Korcusko says the newly enhanced multi-width slitter head assembly with the proprietary angular contact bearing design was developed after a service center customer came to K&S wanting more capabilities on a particular slitting line. They wanted to handle 26-inch-wide material, light-gauge precision strip and sought to process heavy gauge up to 0.250-inch thick.

“We asked how wide would the heavy gauge would be,” he continues. “They had a wider slitter to break down wide coils and they could move the heavier gauge to this machine. They wanted low horsepower, which saves on the cost of the machine and on the operation as a whole. They weren’t going to benefit from a speed higher than 300 feet per minute. We found a solution that was going to work for them but it was two speeds and adjustable lockup.”

All the equipment K&S Machinery builds is custom designed based on clients’ needs. “We want to solve problems and give our customers more flexibility and capability,” Korcusko says.

In addition to slitting lines, K&S Machinery builds packaging lines, traverse winding lines, edging lines, single components, rebuilds/retrofits and other types of metal processing lines.

They are custom built. “Every job requires one of our engineers to go on site at the customer’s plant, before we prepare a quotation, to see what they need, talk to their operators, the foremen and managers.”

As a result of the success with the multi-width, two-speed slitter stand, the customer “retired the rest of their existing line and let us build the entire replacement line.

“We listened to the customer and delivered the perfect solution; that’s what we do,” Korcusko says.