What Is the Caster Shear in a Steel Mill?
Steel isn't one type of metal-it's a family of iron-based alloys. Mills produce a variety of steel alloys and most also form steel into shapes and sizes suited for raw stock by manufacturers. The forming is done in conjunction with a rolling mill setup on which glowing-hot steel rolls along casters.
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The "Assembly Line"
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A steel mill does not use an actual assembly line, since it does not assemble a product in the way car parts are. Steel mills use the assembly line concept, however, in what is more accurately described as a "process line" whereby steel is processed along a conveyor. The conveyor system is comprised of casters.
Castors
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The steel mill's conveyor system uses casters, not belts, because of the harsh environment and the adaptability for use in forming and cutting as well as conveying. Casters are the rollers used underneath most conveyor built system. Steel-mill casters are especially built for the high-temperature, often corrosive environment of the mill. The job of most steel mill casters is to convey, but some special casters do more.
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Shear
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A shear is a die. It is a means of cutting whereby adequate force is applied in opposite directions along the same plane to shear the substance in half. Examples of shears include paper cutters and hole punchers. There is a wide variety of straight and curved metal shears that cut metal stock -- sheet metal, cold rolled stock or thicker material -- just like it was paper.
Castor Shear
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A caster shear is a device that integrates a rotary shear into a caster-line. A rotary sheer is like other shears, but the shear-edge protrudes from a cylinder, similar to a caster. Caster shears are integrated into rolling mills to cut steel stock to specific lengths or into shapes. They can be continuous, cutting all stock rolled through them; they can be engaged, then disengaged mechanically or automatically, to cut the specified needs of the steel mill. Caster shears are often used as alternatives to other types of shear blades.
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References
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