Brian Landry

The straightener, when set properly, removes the coil set, or curvature of the rolled material. If the machine is used or set incorrectly, the coil set can remain in the material, even after being struck in presses with capacities to hundreds of tons. This can cause a variety of problems: out-of-tolerance parts, difficult feed operations that can disrupt and slow performance, and, to some extent, additional wear and tear on feed line components and tooling.

Upon their debut in the 1960s, servo press feed systems were hailed as the technology for the future. They were recognized for their productivity advantages, a result of digital setups that quickly dialed in feed length and speed parameters, with controlled acceleration and deceleration rates, job...