The latest mesh welding line installations at Marsa Rebar

Marsa Rebar Ltd, one of the leading reinforcement mesh producers in Malta, choose Eurobend GmbH as their vendor for a fully automatic mesh welding line (type PLR AKK) working from coil rebar and for a 2-D / 3-D rebar bender (type G-Star 16 SE Tris) processing coiled re-bar up to 16mm. Both the AKK welding machine and the G-Star rebar bender was the obvious choice for Marsa Rebar. Fully automatic operation, together with the avant-garde technology adopted and simple programming are the key factors that helped Marsa Rebar to select the two Eurobend machines.

The “AKK” welding line has set new standards in mesh production. The innovative design eliminates all idle times and at least doubles productivity in comparison to conventional welding lines. All advantages from off-coil and pre-cut welding machines and more, are combined in one machine.

AKK mesh welding line

The “AKK” Series are capable of producing large and small batches-orders consecutively without any downtime. The concept behind the AKK series allows automatic mesh spacing & dimensions changes, making it the only flexible high production coil-fed mesh welding line, as it can produce all mesh types instantly without any adjustments, according to the suppier. Also, it offers a compact system layout requiring minimum floor space requirements. There are no downtime times when changing wire coils, wire diameters, line and cross wire spacing or mesh dimensions.

Equipped with the Patented “Automatic Wire Orientation System -AWOS”, which allows the use of a highspeed roller straightening module for line wire feeding. The “AWOS” absorbs all wire straightening imperfections from the roller straightener. This unique Automatic Wire Orientation System ensures perfectly flat mesh panels regardless of wire and straightening quality. It is fully programmable and capable of processing all types of material, smooth or ribbed.

A Single coil replaces all line wire de-coiling stations, where a double line & cross wire de-coiling station ensures continuous operation. The wire feeding by a single coil replaces all wire unwinding stations, whereby the feeding concept with redundant longitudinal and cross wire unwinding system ensures continuous operation without interrupting production when a coil is finished. As a result to the above, minimal stock of wire spools and coils required and the necessity for large stock of ready mesh as in conventional welding lines is eliminated. Furthermore, multiple diameter changes during one day/shift can be achieved efficiently thanks to single coil line wire feeding.

The AKK series are equipped with independent heavy duty hydraulic or pneumatically operated welding heads. Thanks to programmable cross wire steps, different cross wire spacing is possible within the same mesh. Mesh advancing either through a servo-driven carrier offering exceptional accuracy, or through a compact layout servo-driven roller feeder. The AAK welding line installed at Marsa Rebar, can process rebar up to 10mm (line and cross wires) and produce mesh with maximum dimensions of 2.7m wide and 8m length.

G-Star stirrup bending machine

The rebar bender installed at Marsa Rebar, type G-Star 16 SE Tris is equipped with a sophisticated bending system, which employs a retractable bending pin, located on the rotating plate enabling re-bar feeding during bender new positioning, thus increasing the production capacity and eliminating the idle times. Furthermore, thanks to smart bending head design and the location of the cutting tool -in relation to the bending tool- cutting is achieved without re-bar reversing.

The straightening system found on the G-Star series has two roller straightening blocks and uses a number of unique features, which ensure excellent straightening and smooth re-bar feeding. The two straightening devices are placed at 90° to each other.

Looking deeper into the straightening operation, a powerful geared servomotor is responsible for transmitting power to every lower straightening roller. With this technique, the straightening force is evenly distributed along the full contact line between the re-bar and the rollers, thus achieving smooth feeding without imposing excessive force, thus not damaging the rebar ribs. The machine is equipped with an electric Anti-Twist system, which can be activated from the control panel ensuring the production of high-quality stirrups.

Concluding on the straightening system, all G-Star benders are equipped with a fast an accurate diameter changeover device, (“Hexagon Shaft Pre-setting System”), where all rollers are adjusted at once using the preset markings, for every processed diameter. For advanced operation a motorized automatically adjusting system is optionally available. Heading towards the bending head after the straightening devices, an additional anti-twist mechanism is available. This is the latest addition to the list of advanced -patented- features found on the G-Star range and it is known as the Automatic Torsion Eliminator (ATE). A set of pneumatically activated moving grippers, prevent the re-bar from twisting while feeding and bending.

However, the most well-known feature of the G-Star benders is the 3-D bending capability. Optionally available on any G-Star model an additional bending system can produce three-dimensional bends, eliminating the need of secondary bending operations and giving realistically unlimited shape possibilities. The 3-d bending head found on this G-Star rebar bender uses a retractable twin roller design for unlimited shape possibilities.

Eurobend GmbH successfully combines all the above unique features with user-friendly and reliable software, making every G-Star bender easily controlled and operated without requiring any programming skills. The main operating software features among others a self-diagnostic function checking all operations of the bending machine, a simulation program module and production statistics, which can be viewed and transferred for the production control and planning. The production jobs can be entered by a barcode scanner or via Ethernet in various industrial formats such as BVBS, Unitechnik and others. Furthermore, thanks to the hardware installed, it is possible to connect the computer of the bender over the internet and run maintenance checks and troubleshooting from the Eurobend service centers in real time mode.