The FMB Micromag 20 is an automatic bar loading magazine bar feeder designed for feeding round, square and hexagonal bar material into CNC lathes. Quick-change polyurethane guide channels allow for quiet operation at high RPM. This feeder is compatible with all types of sliding or fixed, CNC or cam operated lathes with spindle bores up to 24 mm. The Walking Beam system was designed by FMB to provide proper and consistent loading of 0.8 mm to 3 mm bar stock, suited for industries such as medical and electronics. The storage capacity is 24 bars in the Walking Beam’s steel toothed bar advancement device. The Walking Beam mechanism folds down when loading larger bar stock in the traditional linear feed tray. An additional storage tray is located on the front of the magazine for fast reloading. When running profiled bars the feed mechanismis automatically pulsed to ensure the profiled material is successfully located in the lathe collet/chuck.With the In-Feed control a new bar is automatically positioned in the lathe ready for facing before the first component is produced. “The robust design of the Micromag and its support stands are resistant to flexing. This keeps vibration from bent bars to a minimum, so a smooth operation is guaranteed. Its single-pusher design cuts bar change time in half versus a double-pusher style feeder. After remnant retraction, a single pusher positions the new bar and gets you back into production. A mere 17 seconds is required for the whole bar change process,” said an Edge Technologies spokesperson. The Micromag 20 features an Omron SPS controller with a servomotor drive to the feed mechanism and a position sensor. The flexible control of bar length and rate of feed provide the optimum practical and economic use of the magazine. Options on the operator control panel provide proper interaction between the bar feeder and the CNC lathe, with parameters clearly shown on the text display. This model is equipped with a headstock synchronization device allowing rapid backward/forward movements on sliding headstock lathes without forward feed pressure from the bar pusher. “The result is no bar distortion. A bushing block steady rest device on the turbo guides the bar stock between the bar feeder and lathe. The blocks provide excellent feeding of round or profiled material,” said the spokesperson. “The polyurethane quick-change guide channels reduce noise and vibration and can be changed quickly and easily in about 10 minutes to accommodate multiple bar stock diameters. Oil filled guide channels envelope the stock, providing the ideal guiding system for high RPM turning operations. During this process the rotation of the bar creates a hydrodynamic effect, centering the bar stock in the channel and reducing noise and vibration. The guide channel is securely closed with a toggle lever system while machining bars. Guide channels are used when loading bar stock ranging from 3 mm up to 20 mm,” said the spokesperson. Bars are placed in the storage magazine at the side of the guide channel. This area features a loading capacity of seven linear inches. The new bar is automatically positioned in the lathe ready for facing before the first component is produced. Maximum adjustable feeding speed is 600 mm per second and maximum adjustable return speed is 1,000 mm per second. The bar remnants are withdrawn to the back end of the magazine and a gripper extracts it out of the collet and deposits it in a remnant basket. The gripping device is used to both insert the new bar into the bar stock collet and to extract the remnant. It is not necessary to chamfer the bar if it is cleanly cut. No adjustment for bar size is necessary and it is completely self-centering. Bar pusher collet changes can be done less than two minutes with the Pin-On collet feature. For more information contact: Rick Bauer Sales & Operations Manager Edge Technologies 11600 Adie Road St. Louis, MO 63043 314-692-8388 Ext. 3904 rbauer@edgetechnologies.com www.edgetechnologies.com