Magazine Bar Feeder Enables Unattended Operation

The Commander 8-80 is a magazine bar feeder which comes with a touchscreen interface and handheld pendant. Photo Credit: Edge Technologies.

The Commander 8-80 from Edge Technologies is a compact, magazine-style bar feeder that features an 8- to 80-mm bar diameter capacity range for feeding 6 ft. and 12 ft.-long round, square, hexagonal and shaped bar stock into fixed headstock CNC lathes. With a large magazine capacity enabling unattended operation, the Commander 8-80 offers the advantage of automatic bar loading with a small footprint.

The loading storage capacity is 406 mm (16") deep. Bars are loaded from the front of the bar feeder. Large diameter bars are lowered into the channel area with a soft-load device. Material is then guided into the lathe within urethane channels, eliminating the potential for marring of the bars’ surfaces. The bar feeder can load barstock with lengths up to 3,800 mm.

With the newly designed oil-filled channel sets, changeovers are completed within minutes and enable quiet operation, the company says. The main beam and support stands are designed to be resistant to flex, enabling vibration from bent bars to be at a minimum. An oversized front steady is said to eliminate harmonics as the material is transferred from the bar feeder to the lathe.

The bar feeder also features a 7" touchscreen control with a 500-part program storage. A hand-held controller is standard and is said to make setups and changeovers effortless. The newly updated electronic package comes with Ethernet I/P support. Some additional features are feeding to a stop or position and operation with subspindle mode.