Material Handling Equipment for Induction Heating Systems

The handling of billets or bars is an essential part of an induction heating system. This article describes two types of handling systems available for bar heating lines: inclined ramps with escapement, and sling feeder with inclined ramp and escapement. It focuses on the various infeed billet handling systems such as bin tippers, elevator feeders, rotary feeders, vibratory bowl feeders, magazine loaders, and rod feeders. The article provides information on the main categories of billet feeding systems, namely, dual pinch roll drive assemblies, tractor drive assemblies, billet pusher systems, walking beam assemblies, and index/continuous conveyor systems. It also discussed the hot billet handling systems used to deliver heated billets to the forging cell. These methods include billet extractor conveyors, accept/reject systems with pyrometer measurements, extractor rolls, discharge chutes, pinch roll extractors, pick-n-place systems, and robots.