May 2025 Volume 7

AUTOMATION

As the pushout bar is fed into the infeed pinch roll drive assembly, it pushes billets through the coil line at the desired rate allowing the forge operator to continue forging hot billets. When the billet pushout bar pushes all billets through an individual coil, the power is turned off each coil to avoid heating the pushout bar. Once the pushout bar reaches the end of the coil line, the bar is retracted automatically and stored at the end of the billet pushout cycle. Inductoheat offers several alternative billet pushout systems designs to meet the needs of forging customers and their different requirements. The Inductoforge Billet Pushout System is a patented system designed exclusively to operate with the Inductoforge Billet Heating System. As an alternative approach, Inductoheat also offers an In-Line Billet Pushout System that can be adapted to any billet heating system. InductoForge Billet Pushout System For a forging company, optimizing space in a forging plant and utilizing it to its optimal capabilities can be a challenge. When Inductoheat set out to design a billet pushout device, conserving space was a key factor in the system design. The approach not only considers the mechanical function for pushing billets through a coil line but also is designed to minimize excessive heating in the pushout bar during operation. The design of the Inductoforge® Billet Pushout System consists of three (3) main components, the pushout bar storage tube, the pushout drive mechanism and the billet pushout bar.

The pinch roll drive mechanism is designed to ensure the pushout bar will be driven to the tail of the last billet without causing any delays in the cycle time of heated billets. The spring force on the drive mechanism ensures the bar motion is continuous and minimizes bar slippage. Once the pushout bar reaches the end of the coil line, the pinch roll drive mechanism is also sized to retract the pushout bar back into the storage tube. The pinch roll drive is controlled by a variable speed drive (VFD) equipped with a torque feedback board that allows the motor to slip and not over push the bar against the billets. This ensures the feed rate through the induction coil line is maintained and billets are heated to their proper temperature.

To save space in a forging plant, the pushout system is specifically designed to be mounted on top of an Inductoforge billet heater. The tubular housing with curved end allows the billet pushout bar to be stored above the induction coil line, thus requiring no additional

The pushout bar is designed to minimize heating during the pushout process while maintaining the mechanical rigidity required to push heated billets out of the induction heating coils. The precisely machined slots along the side of the pushout bar minimizes the thickness of the material in the middle of the bar diameter causing the current to cancel out. The cancellation of the current flow eliminates the heating of the bar during the pushout process. In addition, the pushout bar is comprised of several linked pieces giving

floor space. The curved design of the storage tube allows the billet pushout system to be located on one side of the centerline of the billet heater resulting in no interference with the installation or removal of the induction heating coils. The nose of the curved storage tube is designed to feed the billet pushout device onto the infeed chain conveyor of a pinch roll drive system, centering it between the guide plates. Once the billet pushout bar is fed onto the conveyor, the nose of the bar is driven into the end of the last billet and applies pressure against the billets, pushing them through the induction coil line.

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