How to Punch and feed a c-channel

[petecul]

I am currently punching holes of 0.5" in c-channels C3 and C4. At every 6 inches I need to punch hole on a full lenght of 20'. I currently punching the first hole, after that I manually pull the c-channel up to a dowel pin that fits in the hole and in the die just to make sure that the increment of 6 inches is fine, then I do the second holes and repeat stept until the end of channel.

My problem is that big volume are coming in. I would like to increase productivity without altering the acuracy of holes location wich is 1/32" at every 5'. Does anybody have a idea to feed and punch holes faster without spending a lot of money?

thanks
Petecul

 

[BillPSU]

Your biggest problem will be material handling. Use roller conveyor on inbound side and outbound side. Place raw material at the same height as the conveyor. Add guards to the machine and utilize foot pedal operation.

 

[ajack1]

Do you have a brake press available? We have done similar stuff in the past using redman (self contained piercing units) in the past.

 

[ajack1]

I am sure other companies make very similar products but this might help.

http://www.redmanunipunch.co.uk/dw/navig/products.html

 

[ornerynorsk]

Make a larger die with more than one hole punch.