But they are blindly economizing when it comes to maintaining the all-important tools on this expensive equipment.
Well-known sheetmetal machinery supplier to Australia New Zealand, Maxitec, says it is imperative to properly maintain the tooling on sheetmetal automation or risk costly outcomes.
Managing Director of the company, Mr Andrew Bentrup, says some of the 'home-made' methods fabricators have been caught using to sharpen and maintain tooling is nothing short of astounding and exposes equipment to massive damage.
"Sheetmetal machinery is high precision equipment, often and running on powerful software, hydraulic and servo-electric systems," said Mr Bentrup.
"The condition of the tooling is of utmost importance because it is this very tooling that gives the fabricator quality and precision in each and every job in.
"If the tooling isn't kept accurate and sharp using sensible methods, the quality of the fabricated piece may be compromised and this will impact negatively in the eyes of the client.
"In particular, fabricators handling large quantities on sheetmetal machines with high-precision tooling should never be without a precision grinder.
"We frequently come across companies that don’t even have any sort of grinder for sheetmetal machinery tooling – not even a basic one.
"Instead, they choose the most primitive and damaging approach – using a simple rotational bench grinder or hand-held angle grinders.
"In no way is this suitable; therefore excessive breakdowns during fabrication are common and this is destroying tooling and in turn the expensive machines which utilise them."
The irony in all this is that grinders specifically for sheetmetal machinery are available with fixtures for almost all types of tooling styles, on machines such as punch-presses and can be delivered according to manufacturers' specifications.
Among the most effective types are grinders that are user friendly to such an extent they do not even require an operator to bring the die down to the punch – a procedure that often snaps the small-diameter punches.
Some have reference positions set by laser and pre-set sharpening programs that can be selected from the touch screen. The tool grinding is then performed automatically.
"Sharpening tooling without a suitable grinder is pointless," said Mr Bentrup. "The amount and damage caused by 'home-made' solutions is a very costly affair and anyone choosing to take this road in sharpening tooling will, without fail, find it a very expensive method in more ways than one."
