A local steel company asked us to evaluate 2 uncoilers for an annealing furnace. The complaints were lack of tension control and leaking water-cooled brakes. After running some calculations for torque and heat requirements, it was very obvious that the brakes were much too large for the application. Our experience shows that this is a common problem in the industry. Bigger is not better.
The solution was air-cooled caliper brakes and ventilated discs from Kobelt. The customer was supplied with a Kobelt Model 5022-A with special friction material for continuous slip. It is running on a 25" diameter ventilated disc. The results were better tension control due to an improved operating air pressure range and less maintenance time with easy access to the friction pads and air actuators. An ultrasonic tension control from Magpower automatically adjusts air pressure as the coil gets smaller.
Clutch Engineering takes pride in finding solutions for your toughest applications. Please click through our case studies to see how we can help you.