Parker Pneumatic 3D automation products, compact cylinders and pneumatic power valves have been specified for the automatic loading system of a five-station rotary transfer machine designed and constr
Parker Pneumatic 3D automation products, compact cylinders and pneumatic power valves have been specified for the automatic loading system of a five-station rotary transfer machine designed and constructed by special-purpose machine builder, Dunelm Machine Tools of Crewe, for installation at the Corus plc commercial steels manufacturing plant in Scunthorpe. The machine produces Charpy test samples for impact testing. The five stations mill the faces of 50 mm long test pieces, cut a V-notch approximately 2 mm deep in the centre of the piece, and impact mark one face with a code number and temperature.

The necessary level of steel sample testing has risen dramatically in recent times because european standards now require that a sample of every piece of manufactured steel is tested and receives a compliance certificate before it can be sold.

The rotary transfer machine's automatic loading system comprises Parker Pneumatic 3D Linear Units, Lift Units and Rotary Units and P5T Compact Cylinders, which act as a jaw to grip the test samples, under the control of PVLB pneumatic power valves.

In operation, a test sample is automatically loaded from an input conveyor into a fixture for one circuit of the machine's five stations.

The test sample is then lifted from that fixture and transferred to a second fixture by the Parker 3D Linear Units.