Fontijne Holland – Experts for Sustainability
Ring preparation line for off the road wheels
The ring preparation line forms a high-quality plate to a flared shape ring for the roll forming process. The strip will be coiled very precisely, to guarantee that the ends of the strip are perfectly aligned towards each other.
The buttwelding process, capable of sections up to 9000 mm² (TC* type up to 5000 mm²), is executed with a minimum of energy consumption and upset, to save energy, material and to reduce the scrap rate (close to Zero).
The buttweld is dressed with innovative process solutions to obtain a perfect weld seam, without excess material and an improved yield strength of the weld affected zone.
The DC flash and flash-less welding process can both be executed with this equipment, depending on the desire and process needs of the manufactured wheel.
The welddressed ring will be sized and flared to a perfectly round product with a known diameter. This roundness will have a positive effect on the final runout of the wheel.
The Fontijne Holland ring preparation line for off road wheels can also be used for other applications, where a steel strip needs to be transformed into a ring. Optionally, you can eqipped the ring preparation line with a stacker / de-stacker station for a user-friendly loading.
* TC stands for Temperature Controlled, as Fontijne Holland has the know-how to start the Upset process based on the temperature in the weld.
The process steps of a ring preparation line for off the road wheels
Rotary Marker
The plates can be marked with a code defined by the customer
Unique features:
- The marker is capable of marking on the left, right, top or bottom side of the product.
- One character at the time is formed, in this way the required force has no relation to the length of the text.
Coiler
The plates are bent in the 3+1 rolls coiler to form a ring.
Unique features:
- The position of the rolls is designed to an optimum for smooth starting of the coiling process.
- It is possible to steer the product by an adjustable fourth roll to obtain a stable coiling process, to control over or under coiling.
- Adjustment to prevent spiral coiling.
Flattener
The ends of the ring are formed to flat ends, ensuring optimum clamping for the welding process.
Unique feature:
- Misalignment in height is leveled.
Welder loader
The ring is loaded to the welder by the welder loader.
Unique features:
- The welder loader clamps the ring in such a way that all alignments will be held.
- The gap in the ring will be completely closed to enable welding.
- The ring is lowered to the welder clamp surface (after the horizontal movement) to prevent scratching of the ring surface and to reduce wear on the welder clamps.
Welder
The welder welds the ring. This is the heart of the preparation line, herewith the final quality of the weld will be made.
Mechanically the Fontijne Holland welder offers unique features:
- Extra locks on front of weld clamps for an optimized clamping.
- Automatic cleaning system for the jaws.
TC buttwelding is not always possible, due to local circumstances, material or cross-section, therefor Fontijne Holland offers DC welding and DC Flash welding. Mechanically there are no compromises, this is all integrated in our innovative weld control platform.
*) TC stands for Temperature Controlled, as Fontijne Holland has the know-how to start the Upset process based on the temperature in the weld
Unique features of the Weld Control Fontijne Holland 2.0:
- Open loop weld control for DC Flash and DC Flashless welding.
- Closed loop weld control system to determine the welding temperature, applied force and upset speed, resulting in a perfect weld in an extreme short time.
- Transformers based on 50 – 60Hz or MFDC 1000Hz system.
Weld Trimmer
After the welding process the inside and outside of the weld is trimmed.
Unique features:
- The cutting plates are placed in easy removable cassettes.
- The height of each individual cutting plate can be adjusted.
- No adjustments needed for different material thicknesses.
- Automatic compensation for tapered material.
- The chips are collected and guided to the bottom of the machine to prevent them from falling into the ring, causing damage in the next steps.
Weld Seam Roller (Planisher)
The Weld Seam Roller remains the height difference after the trimming process.
Unique feature:
- Adjusting the roll force is easy and precise.
- The rigid construction for applying the press force ensures a stable rolling process.
- The roller shape guarantees planishing the material without marks.
Side Trimmer
The bulges at the front and the rear of the weld are removed by the side trimmer.
Unique features:
- The cutting is executed from the inside to the outside of the ring.
- The cutting radius is designed in such a way that after roll forming no bulges remain.
Flaexpander
Finally the ring is re-rounded and flared.
Unique feature:
- Re-rounding and flaring in one machine.
- Diameter control during sizing of the ring.
- Spring back compensation.
- Perfect roundness of the ring.
- No axial force applied during flaring, only radial force.
- No friction during flaring, means no marks or scratches.
- While flaring, crack detection in the welding zone is executed to guarantee the quality of the product.
Not the right one?
The Fontijne Holland lines do not only manufacture rims. Any sheet metal product that needs to be formed and/or profiled, can be produced on our equipment. If you need assistance with the production of your products, please contact us.