ARKU Inc. (Cincinnati, OH) offers products for deburring and edge rounding, working with steel coil, and leveling parts. We found out more about the latter category by spending some time on the EcoMaster 30 while at the company’s U.S. headquarters.
It’s designed for flattening sheet metal and sheet metal parts, with a range from 0.1 mm (0.005 in.) to 5 mm (0.200 in.). Leveling speed goes from 3 m/min. to 20 m/min. (10 to 65 ft./min.), depending on the application and the material. According to the firm, you can achieve precision to the tune of 1/100 mm. The EcoMaster 30 comes in widths from 12 in. to 51 in.; we looked under the hood of the 51 in. model.
ARKU says this model can be used for laser-cut and punched parts, perforated sheets/parts, and precious metals. Applications include laser job shops, perforators, aerospace, electrical part making, and the medical industry, although it seemingly fits the bill wherever level parts are a must, within the company’s own operating criteria. The company’s aim with its leveling products is simple enough: level and stress-relieved parts and sheets.
Removing stress from the metal sheet also means removing the “memory” of the bend or curve. This is done by sending the sheet through a series of small-diameter rollers that send the sheet through a series of rollers in a wave pattern, decreasing the amplitude each time until the final roller pair simply makes it a flat piece (see figure). Through the initial strong bend, the material is actually taken past its yield point, which allows for the residual stresses to be relieved.
The way it looks in the real world is in the photo below. You can plainly see the end of the rollers. There are many of them to insure a strong but gradual move from “wave” to flat. As you can see, the upper and lower rollers can slide out for maintenance. Regular cleaning is done by sending a piece of cleaning felt through the machine without opening any doors, etc., much as you would do with a workpiece.
From a bit further back, you can also see the height adjustment wheels used to set the distances between the rollers at the entry and exit points of the entire roller assembly. These are set individually, although for thicker stock, one sets both wheels higher, and adjusts the front and back to accommodate the amount of “wave” based on the amount of flattening necessary.
Making any adjustments with the control wheels takes only a matter of seconds. Everything is pretty speedy, as we’ll see in this brief video with ARKU’s Chad Ellis:
Eight seconds flat
A few noteworthy items come to mind from this brief video. First, while the material is aluminum, it is also out of flat—easy to see that with the naked eye—by the better part of an inch. That’s significant for the size of the part. Further, we spliced in a separate run to show how a piece goes through the rollers, and we spliced in and out the exact time (i.e. the start to finish is exactly as it is in real life). And our last point is that this operation took about eight seconds.
The EcoMaster is one of three leveling product lines from ARKU. For thicker materials up to 60 mm (2.50 in.), the FlatMaster is the choice. If your company processes a lot of plate steel, the PlateMaster is the ideal choice, with the ability to run rusted and scaly plates.
More information: https://www.arku.com/us/products/levelers/ecomaster/