FOCUS ON COIL PROCESSING
Image: Street Cranes.
Aluminum coil handling. Coils.
Image: Salzgitter.
SAY IT WITH COIL
Advanced coil processing lines offer precision, flexibility, cost savings, waste reduction and enhanced production efficiency for high-volume material users.
“ Coil processing is suitable for high-volume, consistent production.”
Coil processing is the transformation of metal coil into a variety of shapes and sizes. It involves the handling and transformation of coils into flat sheets or strip tailored to specific dimensions. This process typically includes decoiling, straightening, slitting and cutting to length. It is a vital step in preparing metal for various manufacturing processes. By optimising metalworking operations with advanced coil processing lines, manufacturers can achieve significant cost savings, enhance production efficiency and improve material quality.
“ Purchasing metal in coil form is generally more economical than buying pre-cut sheets. Coils are cheaper to transport and handle, leading to significant cost savings. Coil processing lines also minimise waste by enabling precise cutting and slitting to the exact dimensions required for production, ensuring optimal material usage. These lines offer great flexibility, allowing manufacturers to quickly adapt to changing production requirements by adjusting the cut lengths and slit widths,” commented Selmach Machinery.
“ Automated coil processing lines increase throughput by reducing manual handling and streamlining cutting and slitting processes. Advanced straightening and flattening capabilities ensure high-quality flat sheets, improving the downstream manufacturing process,” it added.
Common coil processing techniques include:
■ Cut-to-length( shearing).
■ Roll forming.
■ Slitting.
■ Levelling.
■ Edging.
■ Feeding.
■ Laser blanking.
■ Press feeding.
■ Coil coating.
■ Pickling( treating the surface of steel coils to remove impurities).
■ Galvanizing.
“ Cutting to length and slitting involves taking a wider master coil and cutting( slitting) it into various widths with rotary slitting knives. For cut-to-length applications, a rotary shear or a flying shear can cut the coil to the required sheet metal sizes. In the next step, the coil material is fed into presses, roll forming entry lines or coil-fed laser blanking lines. These coil lines ensure that coil strips are fed reliably, and at the necessary speed, for optimal further processing. Different coil lines will achieve different results and final products, so, when choosing a coil line, it is important to know what processes you need to include,” commented surface finishing and levelling specialist, ARKU.
The levelling process
Levelling is the process of straightening through various offset rolls with a smaller diameter. Typically, these machines are backed up with rolls behind the work rolls to minimise deflection.
Image: Combilift.
68 | ismr. net | ISMR October 2025