Service Tip of the Month

NELA Service Tip
Welcome to the NELA Service Tip of the month!
Every month, you get a quick tip on how to maintain your NELA equipment. This is part of our effort to continuously improve our service offerings to you.
We hope you find this valuable and helpful. Drop us a line and let us know. We want to hear from you.

Thank you.

Your NELA Team

NELA Service Tip for March 2011

Plate Pushers

Plate pushers perform the important job of mechanically aligning plates against the register stops. Our most common pusher assembly uses a Festo combination pneumatic/spring cylinder. Air pressure retracts the plate pusher when not in use while an internal mechanical spring pushes the plate. All fittings in the assembly are secured with blue lock-tight.


Plate pushers should be inspected during routine maintenance. Each pusher needs to have enough spring tension to align the plate against its corresponding plate stop.


The easiest way to check this is by putting the bender into “STEP MODE” and feeding a plate. The bender can then be paused during plate alignment. When in position, pull the plate away from the stop and check to see that the plate is able to slide back into place.

Pushers should be mounted so that the spring cylinder does not run out of stroke. The spring cylinder should have 2-4mm of stroke remaining after aligning a plate.


Service Tip provided by Ty E.
NELA Service Technician

NELA * 610 Whitetail Boulevard * River Falls, WI 54022, USA
Phone: 715-425-1900 * e-mail: info@nela-usa.com