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Established 45 years ago, manufacturer of cut to length lines, machine tools and special purpose machinery A.P. Design has always taken advantage of new technology, including intelligent servo drives. While even today small machines are fitted with PLC’s, we now upload links via the internet to PLCs & HMIs.
Together with latest technology available, comes the need for smart interfaced advanced field devices. These range from a sub miniature infra-red sensor to vision recognitions systems. With the vast amount of options available we can build machines that are much more cost effective and user friendly.
At our company all design work is done on Autodesk Inventor 2019 work stations. These software packages allow A.P. Design engineers to system check the functionality of machines prior to being built, which includes FEA (Finite Element Analysis).
All components used in the building of machines including electronic and system interfaces are manufactured in-house.
While A.P. Design provides press shop turnkey solutions and automation of presses and guillotines, the company also manufactures vibratory bowl feeders for small parts, servo drive roll feeders and eccentric presses. Our servo roll feeders come in any length required. While the units are controlled by a closed loop servo drive, models are available from 200mm to 1 250mm wide. We have strip feeders available up to 400mm wide and 400mm feed length x 4mm thick. Smallest available 38mm wide and 50mm feed length x 1mm thick with feed accuracy ± 0,15 per 0,5m.
Our range of products also includes two-in-one decoiler straighteners used to straighten material from coil for subsequent use in a strip feeder or electronic roll feeder; this material will then be fed to a press or guillotine. Coils over 2 000kg and more than 1 100mm in diameter and 200 to 1250mm width can be fed.
A wide range of custom made hydraulic presses are available from 30 to 1 000 tons. These are either simple machines with a cylinder and platens or maybe more complex with die cushion.
We manufacture decoilers in a number of varieties, widths and tonnage with small units from 500kg and a width of 100mm to 30 tons and 2 500mm wide. These units can be non-motorized (Haul-off ) or fully motorized with electronic controls.
Our cut to length lines (CTLL) will comprise of a decoiler, feeding the coil into a leveler. The leveler will straighten the steel and an encoder will measure the steel to the correct length for cutting. Most CTLL have guillotines fitted which will do the cutting. Some CTLL have slitters fitted (blanking line) which will cut the material into strips and then recoil the steel onto spools or into coils. Most CTLL are run by a PLC and HMI screen which are programmed to do batch cutting and setting parameters. The operator will programme the length and number of pieces required, and the unit stops when the programme is finished. For increased production a flying shear is incorporated. These units can handle 30 ton coils and widths of material up to 2 020mm.
Our vibratory bowl feeders are used to orientate parts and feed them to down line assembly machinery by means of a vibrator pack and an aluminium spiral track bowl ranging in diameter from 150mm to 710mm and various track sizes. Typical feed rates are 40 to 200 parts/minute.
We have manufactured special purpose machinery for the production of roll-on deodorants, making bricks and even roof tiles. Most car manufacturers have A.P. Design equipment in their plants. We help to keep the railways running and help to make industrial diamonds.
For more information, please contact A.P. Design – Tel: 011 010-0495.
