Edge Technologies' FMB Turbo 3-38 Feeds Round, Square and Hexagonal Bar

Edge Technologies’ FMB Turbo 3-38, an automatic bar loading magazine feeder is designed for feeding round, square and hexagonal bar material into CNC lathes. Quick-change polyurethane guide channels allow for quiet operation at high RPM cutting. This feeder is compatible with all types of sliding or fixed, CNC or cam-operated lathes with spindle bores up to 38 mm.

The Turbo 3-38 features a Bosch electronic package. The Bosch controller, with servomotor drive to the feed mechanism, offers flexible control of the length and rate of feed that guarantees the optimum practical and economic use of the magazine feeder. The 8" easy touchscreen operator control panel is Industry 4.0 ready for Ethernet communications. It guarantees the interaction between the bar feeder and the CNC lathe. Parameters are clearly shown on the display.

This FMB model, like many other in the Turbo line, is equipped with a

headstock synchronization device allowing rapid backward/forward movements on fast moving sliding headstock lathes without forward feed pressure from the bar pusher. The result: no bar distortion, according to the company. For the loading of irregular shaped barstock, the feed mechanism is automatically pulsed to ensure the profiled material is successfully located in the lathe collet/chuck.

The design of the bar feeder’s main beam and support stands are resistant to bending. This keeps vibration from bent bars to a minimum, so a smooth operation is guaranteed, according to the company. The double-pusher, space-saving design is 4 ft. shorter than single-pusher bar feeders.

The Quick-Change polyurethane guide channels can be changed quickly and easily in about 10 min. to accommodate multiple barstock diameters. Oil-filled guide channels envelope the stock, providing the ideal guiding system for high RPM turning operations, the company says. During this process, the rotation of the bar creates a hydro-dynamic effect, centering the barstock in the channel, reducing noise and vibration. The guide channel is securely closed with a toggle lever system while machining bars. Barstock collet changes can be done less than 2 minutes with the “pin-on” collet feature.

A roller steady rest device on the Turbo guides the barstock between the bar feeder and lathe. Rollers or blocks provide excellent feeding of round or profiled material. The rollers can be continuously adjusted to the bar diameter and can quickly be replaced with blocks for supporting profiled material. Two Turbo 3-38 configurations will handle bar lengths of 3,800 mm (12 ft. 5”) with the standard 12-ft. unit, or 2,200-mm (7 ft. 3”) bars with the 6-ft. unit.

Bars are placed on the storage table at the side of the guide channel. This table features a loading capacity of 11”. The new bar is automatically positioned in the lathe ready for facing before the first component is produced. Part-to-part feed out can be controlled without a dead stop being required. Loading time for a 12-ft. bar is 24 sec. Maximum adjustable forward feed rate is 1,000 mm per second and maximum adjustable return speed is 2,000 mm per second.

The bar remnants are withdrawn to the back end of the magazine, and a gripper extracts it out of the collet and deposits it in a remnant basket. An air-operated gripping device is used to both insert the new bar into the barstock collet and to extract the remnant. It is not necessary to chamfer the bar if it is cleanly cut. No adjustment for bar size is necessary, and it is self-centering.

The barstock alignment guides and separation device can be quickly adjusted for new bar diameters. The guide channel is closed and locked with a toggle lever system.