Patent attributes
An apparatus, system and method for manufacturing metal parts, where input material is received from several material sources, multiple metal parts are produced at the same time, and the multiple metal parts may be provided to a downstream operation for subsequent processing. According to an exemplary embodiment, unwinding apparatuses unwind metal coils and provide three separate metal strips to coil-fed metal forming press. The coil-fed metal forming press then creates three separate blanks or metal parts at the same time. Next, a part transfer apparatus retrieves the three metal parts from an output side of coil-fed metal forming press, and presents them to part assembly apparatus, which may include a laser welder or other piece of equipment. Once the metal parts are properly positioned, part assembly apparatus can create a metal part assembly from the three individual blanks.
