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Index introduces its bar loader to pair with its multi-spindle machines for increased turning quality. An optimized bar guide is designed to increase productivity and dynamics and to reduce cycle times. The bar feeder uses a pusher with an internal collet, enabling individual adjustment of the guide channels to the diameter of the bar stock. The rotation of the bar results in a hydrodynamic bearing effect that holds the bar in the center of the channel. The result is a low-vibration guide that increases surface quality and tolerances of the machined workpieces.

A drilling unit immediately behind the bundle or rack loading station drills the bar stock before it enters the channels. Bars are transported along the process by a conveyor belt for drilling, buffering and transportation of the bar to a free channel.

When the machine requests a new bar, a lift takes the bar from the intermediate buffer of the magazine and transports it down to the free channel. A driver pushes it to a stop for measurement, the stop swings to the outside and the bar is pushed forward. Closing the upper channel cover swings in the pusher located there. After the bar has been pulled onto the internal collet of the pusher, the pusher then feeds the bar forward. A servo drive with an absolute encoder enables the bars to be fed independently without additional bar sensors.

After the bar has been machined, the remnant is removed and conveyed into the remnant container. The loader’s divided channels and ability to swing the pusher in at a time when the bar is already in the spindle area limits the length of the bar loader to a level that exceeds the bar length only slightly.