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19 September 2008

All revved up!

Sub contractor Crown Manufacturing was borne out of its director’s business of renovating Lambretta scooters. A local shop-fitting company required help with its work and turned to Crown’s owner for of his engineering abilities. The work escalated and very quickly Crown Manufacturing was offering a sub-contract facility, to mainly shop fitters, using an out-of date punching machine, a basic guillotine and a basic press brake. In 2002 the company invested in a plasma machine before realising in 2005 what the benefits of laser cutting could bring to the business.

Paul Read, production co-ordinator, comments: “Short lead times, quality of product and large batch runs sum up shop fitting sub-contract work. Customers want orders quickly and production runs are usually large. Laser cutting was a natural progression for us and our first machine was a refurbished Bystronic Bypeed laser cutting system – ideal for thin gauge work and incredibly fast. It turned our business around.”

The company has recently invested in a new Bystronic Byspeed and a Bystronic press brake at a total investment of over £400,000

Paul continues: “The time arose when we needed to replace the Byspeed which had been a work horse in its time, and we also wanted the ability to cut with nitrogen as opposed to oxygen. Our 3 mm bracketry requires clean cut edges to allow paint to adhere to it and nitrogen cutting will allow this without further preparation work prior to painting.”

“We did look fleetingly at other laser suppliers but we know what Bystronic laser systems do and in our opinion no other machines come close in terms of quality and machine build. We again chose the Byspeed and this machine is equipped with the 4.4 kW resonator. In our opinion Bystronic really are miles ahead.”

In addition to the Byspeed laser cutting system Crown Manufacturing also invested in a Bystronic 3 metre, 100 tonne AFM press brake. The machine provides an economical and flexible press braking solution requiring minimal set-up and programming times.

Paul continues: “We knew that the latest Byspeed was capable of producing a vast amount of material and that our two existing press brakes would not be able to keep up with the laser. We have so much work going through as we work two eight hour shifts and we did not want the press braking side of our operation letting us down. The Bystronic AFM was the ideal machine for us.”

Equipped with its Synchro technology, the press brake fulfils the high demands placed on process security by Bystronic customers. The hydraulic crowning system and the adaptation of the periphery to customer requirements ensure that the system is flexible and that it produces good bending results across a wide range of sheet thicknesses up to 25 mm aluminium, 12 mm stainless steel and 15 mm mild steel. Combined with an excellent price-performance ratio, these characteristics can result in economical production for customers.

A DNC-884S PS 2D graphic control with its TFT colour screen guarantees complete control over the bending process. The underlying Windows XP operating system ensures high operational reliability and easy, convenient operation. The basic functions are called up at the touch of a button; the corresponding keys are arranged sensibly since they are sorted thematically. The bending sequence is depicted in two dimensions. The screen displays details about material handling and possible collisions between work-piece and tools or machine-side equipment.

The pressure for the hydraulic crowning is set automatically after the length and thickness of the sheet to be bent has been programmed into the DNC-884S PS. The lower beam consists of three robust steel plates that are assembled like a sandwich. The hydraulic crowning system ensures an even bending angle across the entire length of the bed.

Bystronic AFM press brakes are equipped with a DNC-controlled back gauge system. This permits the system to be positioned automatically both in the X and the R axes. Both fingers can be adjusted, manually, laterally on the Z plane via line guides.

With its 2D visualisation of the bending cycle and hydraulic crowning system the AFM EP range is the perfect introduction into CNC press braking.


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