Shamic Sheetmetal (Aust) Pty Ltd, which manufactures various identifiable
national brands including HeatCharm, Coonara and Arrow for household use, identified the need to invest in sheetmetal automation to put distance between itself and competitors.
Managing Director of the company, Mr Eric Woodgate, says extensive
consultation with sheetmetal machinery specialist Maxitec ensured the ideal solution was sourced for minimal cost.
“There is a huge level of competition in this market and we looked hard to find a competitive edge,” said Mr Woodgate.
“Since we invested in new bending technology I believe we are producing all heaters in our range a lot quicker than any of our competition are doing.”
“The key has always been to efficiently – and at high quality – bend sheetmetal profiles that constitute the casing of all our products.”
“Before Maxitec’s solution, we were always slightly behind in our deliveries but now we have eliminated that.”
“This has proved vital because when someone wants a wood heater they want it immediately because the need is always seasonal.”
The technology applied was the FINN-POWER Ebe Express Bender, which
Shamic uses for sheetmetal bending and shaping applications.
Ebe hails a new era in bending technology as it uses servo controllers instead of commonplace hydraulic controllers. The result for Shamic is completely accurate automation of complex tasks, better bending quality, increased flexibility, environmentally friendly operation, reduction in tedious and costly stoppages, less vibration and noise, and much lesser use of electricity and oil.
Maxitec calculates that savings of more than $100,000 over the life of the
equipment can be expected when compared to fully hydraulic machines.
“I believe that the machine produces 10 times faster than our previously manual operation,” said Mr Woodgate.
“Now when I walk into the manufacturing plant and see my folding section it is like a skeleton crew yet the output is far higher, while personnel is not needed any more in this section, they have been redeployed into other areas of the business.”
“The Ebe Express Bender is very good with small batches - we put batches through in quantities as low as 50 and every part comes out identical and in high quality, and that is a major benefit.”
“We manufacture both wood and gas heaters and this one machine bends most of the panels up to 3 mm thickness.
“It performs 90% of our folding needs and readies components for secondary manufacturing and assembly operations, plus is saves all the minor lifting and that sort of thing.
“Small parts go through the machine in doubles to speed up processes and conserve energy. Average running time is about 35 seconds per part, and it doesn't miss a beat.
“With our product we have so many variations of shapes and designs compared to that of most competitors.
“My staff has been here for a very long time and was skeptical at first about me buying the Ebe, but they are now of the opinion it is the best machine they have ever seen.”
FINN-POWER’s Ebe almost fully automates the bending cycle from the initial stage when a blank sheet is loaded right to the point of finalising the bent part, and the entire sequence can be achieved in a continuous lights-out automated process.
It is a high performance in-line express bender that enhances productivity by bending extremely high quality parts in an unmanned environment in any quantity.
Servo controlled operation offers many advantages to manufacturers bending sensitive materials or those with high quality surfaces.
The Ebe technology is essential for benders of polished materials, stainless steel, catering and food processing machinery, whitegoods panels, air conditioning units, and any other application where the protection of surface integrity is essential.
It has the ability to bend the most imaginative profiles, giving the user
unprecedented opportunity and flexibility with its product design and allows full integration with other processes such as engraving, embossing, cutting and forming.
Plus, the Ebe has a clean design allowing easy operator access and its open configuration provides a large operational working field. Advancements made in flexibility provide many more gains. These advancements include:
* More production in the automatic cycle of the parts
* Reduced delivery time to client
* Increased internal process flow
* Database auto updating for different code of the material produced and the time of the production
* Possibility to change parts in order to give new, easy assembly (kit of parts)
solution for products
* Wide bending capability
* Time saving
* Excellent quality of the products for all materials
