Cutting-edge technologie for high standard roof tiles: Händle NOVA II

HÄNDLE engineered the NOVA II in the year 2000 at the behest of roof-tile producer Nibra Dachkeramik. One of their engineers, Dipl.-Ing. Manfred Bracht, it seems, had invented and patented a large-area tile with an "impossible" area coverage size of 5.5 pcs/m², but had not been unable to locate a suitable press for making them. HÄNDLE took up the challenge.

Such extremely large slabs require relatively stiff pressing to achieve sufficient stability and manipula-bility for demoulding and deposition on their drying supports. Together with the sheer size involved, that criterion required that the press be designed for an adequately high pressing force and that its frame deform only minimally in order to maintain highly accurate, true-to-size forming with absolute reproducibility. Also, the drum mounting area had to be accommodated to the larger dimensions of the slabs. The result: the NOVA II roof-tile press in a class of its own. Compared to conventional eccentric presses, this concept offers considerable advantages, as its electromechanical pressure-generating system intensifies the pressure by way of a multiple-toggle drive column. Nibra secured itself a temporary single-source contract for this press.
In early 2002, Nibra integrated and commissioned a pair of HÄNDLE NOVA II presses in their new production line for DS 5 large-format adjustable roof tiles. Both presses have since been running on triple shifts without a hitch and remain to this day the only revolving presses in the world that can turn out roof tiles with a coverage of 5.5 pcs/m². The experience gleaned from all those years of continuous operation have given HÄNDLE a winning edge in pressing know-how, not only for large-area roof tiles, but also for peak-quality tiles of medium and standard size. All that experience has been invested in a detailed overhaul and optimization of the pressing system, and the company’s decision to put the re-vamped version on the market will make it generally available.

A wide range of roof-tile models can be optimally pressed with a NOVA II, because the size of the mould clamp allows it to accommodate either two moulds (for size formats up to 5 pcs/m²) or even three or four moulds (e.g., for 14 pcs/m²). This is only possible, because the freely programmable NOVA II pressing system enables optimal, model-and compound-specific pressing with due allowance both for the shape and size of the tiles and for the properties of the slab (e.g., compound moisture, plasticity, etc.). The variable pressure curve, for example, is enabled by the press' servo-actuated spindle drive, and its soft running is facilitated by toggle-drive kinematics. The size-specific parameters and individual press curves of all the various tile models can be saved and called up at will. This is something that customary revolving presses can not do, because their compression cams have to be made for a single compaction curve that is therefore rigidly defined and can not be altered on short notice.

Some other crucial features of the NOVA II include:

• precise positioning of slabs by a slab robot that can also be used for automatic changing of moulds, including the automatic exchange of moulding tools
• gentle, accurate removal of green tiles by two unloading robots exhibiting high flexibility toward different roof-tile models
• optional mechanised slab loading and demoulding
• uniform slab thickness thanks to motor-driven height adjustment of the top mould by up to 3 mm for regulating the edge gap and compensating for mould wear
• top-mould fixation via a hydraulic pivoting tension jack (also available on option for bottom moulds)
• a Siemens S7-SPS, control system suitable for tie-in to a higher-order in-house computer network, with monitor-based process visualization. For each change of formats, the file con-taining the model-specific compaction curve can be called up at the punch of a key

As of immediately, this new-high-tech roof tile press, the NOVA II, with its unique, model-specific, adjustable compaction curves, puts HÄNDLE at your service anywhere in the world as a competent part-ner to the roof-tile industry – particularly when it comes to pressing high-quality roof tiles.

Source Händle