Red Bud Industries Manufacturer of Coil Processing Equipment High Speed Multi-Cut Blanking Line Installation at Curtis Steel Company, Ltd

Curtis Steel, a family owned steel service center located in Houston, Texas, has installed a High Speed Multi-Cut Blanking Line from Red Bud Industries, Red Bud, Illinois.

The new line at Curtis Steel features Red Bud’s High Speed Dual Action Grip Feed combined with their patented Expandable Arbor Slitting System. This proven combination gives them the ability to efficiently produce blanks with length and width tolerances of ±.005" (±.127 mm) and run at production speeds up to 400 FPM (122 MPM). Red Bud’s patented CNC Programmable Slitter allows this line to run multiple back-to-back blanking jobs with minimal changeover time. The In-Line Expandable Arbor Slitter features a Digital Positioning System that locates both the top and bottom knives while setting the clearance between the knives. Once positioned, the arbors expand, automatically locking the knives in position. Slitter set up time is reduced to about two minutes per cut, eliminating the need for multiple Slitting Heads.

To further add to the line’s overall efficiency, an Automatic Skid Loader is incorporated along with a Continuous Auto Stacker. The Skid Loader injects and automatically positions an empty skid while a full skid is being discharged. The Continuous Auto Stacker allows the line to run during skid transfers, virtually eliminating downtime between skids. Unlike Dual Stackers this unique system requires no additional floor space.

To eliminate the multi-cut blanking bottleneck of separating skids prior to packaging, this line features Red Bud’s Slit Stack Separator. This automatic Sorting System separates the multiple skids and presents a single file of skids to a downline packaging area. Skids can be sorted and sent downstream while the line continues to operate and fills the next batch of skids to be sorted.