Sheet metal working cell raises flexibility

By integrating a fully automated sheet metal machining cell, a Swiss toll gate manufacturer aims to achieve perfect coordination and control of machine tool systems.

By integrating a fully automated sheet metal machining cell, the Swiss manufacturer, Zumbrunn, is aiming not only to make job processing more efficient and to increase the level of flexibility, but also to achieve perfect coordination and control in respect of its existing sheet metal machining units.

The flexible PRO FMS production system from Remmert PRO enables all the system components to be linked together in the best possible way and ensures optimum utilization of the machine tools.

The Zumbrunn Production Center specializes in toll gate manufacturing, from semi-finished products through to preassembled sheet metal units.

Since it was founded twelve years ago, Zumbrunn has undergone continuous expansion and has never stopped adding to its range of business activities.

Today it offers customers a huge range of sheet metal working services from laser cutting and punching, through folding, welding and pipe bending, to powder coating.

Each year, the company processes more than 2,000 tonnes of sheet metal.

In order to ensure that its production processes were providing optimum efficiency, Zumbrunn decided to integrate a fully automated sheet metal working cell.

This consists of three system components: Firstly, there is Remmert's compact sheet storage system, which enables materials to be stockpiled without any wasted space.

Secondly, there are the high-performance Trumpf laser machines, which are connected directly to the storage system using the third component: Remmert PRO's PRO FMS flexible production system.

A fully automated approach is adopted for the purpose of supplying the machines with the raw materials they need.

In addition, PRO FMS is responsible for coordinating and controlling seven other sheet metal machining units that are arranged around the storage system.

Not only was the previous solution (consisting of a sheet storage system with room for 72 pallets) too small, but it was no longer capable of ensuring optimum coordination of the various machining units.

* Project requirements and supplier selection - "Our plan was to integrate an extremely space-saving and fully automated storage system, which could be used to stockpile all our raw materials, semi-finished products and finished parts," said Daniel Zumbrunn, manager of the Zumbrunn Production Center in Sissach, as he describes the project requirements.

"However, the primary aim was to ensure the optimum coordination, utilization and control of our various automated and manually operated sheet metal machining cells by introducing a new and powerful software system.

The reason why this was so important to us was because we wanted to make sure that jobs could be processed with the utmost efficiency and speed." Following a period of intensive market research, the Swiss toll manufacturer ultimately opted for Remmert, the German storage and logistics expert.

"Neither of the other suppliers who managed to make it onto our shortlist measured up to our stringent requirements", said Zumbrunn as he explained the reason for the company's choice.

* Fully integrated sheet metal working center - the fully automated sheet storage system has an overall height of 10m and, therefore, stretches across two levels.

The fact that the available height is fully utilized and that rolling pallets are used makes for an extremely compact storage system: The system can accommodate a total of 502 pallets and supports a maximum payload of 5kN per pallet.

The maximum sheet size is 2m by 4m.

The two stations for placing items into storage are located on the first floor, as are the eight retrieval stations.

These retrieval stations are used to retrieve all the items that are going to be processed by the powder-coating system on the first floor or that need to be delivered.

All the other machine tools are located on the second floor of the Production Center.

The two new machines from Trumpf (a laser cutting machine and combined laser/punching machine) are connected directly to the storage system using the flexible PRO FMS production system.

Together, these three components (the storage system, Trumpf machines and FMS system) make up the toll gate manufacturer's new, fully automated sheet metal machining cell.

Two retrieval stations are assigned to each of the machine tools.

This enables Zumbrunn to benefit from optimum machine utilization, as the lasers receive a continuous supply of material.

In addition to the new Trumpf machines, the second floor also houses three bending machines, a laser machine and plate shears.

These are also arranged around the sheet storage system.

The three machining units are operated manually from three retrieval stations.

All the units are controlled centrally and as a result, the individual production cells combine to form a single, perfectly coordinated, large sheet metal machining center.

* Material and data flow - since March 2005, material and data flow at the Zumbrunn Production Center has been organized as follows: All the raw materials arrive at the Goods Receiving Department on the first floor, from where they are transported to the relevant location by means of the rack feeder.

All the storage locations and associated item descriptions, item numbers, etc, are managed by the PRO WMS warehouse management system.

After the various part geometries have been programmed in the upstream NC office and the appropriate nesting assignments made for the purpose of ensuring optimum cutting, the data is transferred to the new storage control station, where the jobs are made available for processing.

Here the production manager can check the online status of the machine tools as well as the volume of pending/completed work.

The flexible PRO FMS production system manages all the characteristics associated with the machines, materials and parts lists.

PRO FMS uses the computerized customer orders and production parts lists to plan the optimum production sequence and ensures that the two new Trumpf machines are supplied with raw materials in a fully automated manner.

Once the automated cutting/punching operations have been performed, the semi-finished products are sorted and placed into interim storage, where they are stored separately on the basis of customer orders and await transfer to the other machining units for final processing.

The entire flow of materials between the various machining units is managed exclusively via the storage system.

The flexible production system even takes care of the planning and control of subsequent machining operations.

Thus, PRO FMS defines a mandatory sequence, i e, the subsequent process can only be enabled once the previous machining step has been completed.

Naturally, the software still allows the production manager to make changes to the production sequence.

As a result, Zumbrunn has the flexibility it needs in respect of the entire production process.

Once finished, the items are returned to the sheet storage system where they remain until the time comes for delivery to the customer.

* Optimized storage and production processes - together, the individual sheet metal machining units at Zumbrunn now form a compact sheet metal machining center that manages to integrate all machining steps perfectly.

"The PRO FMS flexible production system is responsible for coordinating our entire sheet metal machining center.

All machining steps are perfectly integrated and optimum use is made of the machine tools.

As a result, we are now in a position to process production jobs at top speed while also taking into account a wide variety of optimization criteria," said Zumbrunn as he summed up what has been achieved.

Thanks to the cell technology used, the toll manufacturer now benefits from shorter order lead times, more efficient deployment of personnel and greater flexibility in terms of the overall production process.

"The integrated Remmert sheet storage system means that we also benefit from fast and controlled access to raw materials, semi-finished products and finished parts.

And that is what has saved us the most time.

Small jobs, in particular, used to take a disproportionate amount of time.

Now, we are able to make huge time savings as far as the entire materials handling process is concerned," added Zumbrunn.

* Impressive results - to sum up, having integrated the new sheet metal machining cell, Zumbrunn is now seeing the following improvements as follows.

* The fact that the PRO FMS flexible production system has also been integrated means that Zumbrunn now has the perfect means of coordinating and controlling all the sheet metal machining units at its Production Center.

* The new way in which the software systems can exchange information maximizes transparency across all phases of the production process and ensures seamless tracking of jobs.

* The considerable time savings achieved in terms of the entire production process mean that Zumbrunn is now able to deploy its personnel more effectively.

* As the system is manufacturer-specific, interface problems and the issue of dependency on machine manufacturers can be avoided.

Zumbrunn is fit for the future as far as technical innovations are concerned.

"We managed to win the contract for this machining center because we were able to offer a perfectly integrated overall concept.

Zumbrunn now has a compact sheet metal machining center whose sheet metal machining cells work together in perfect harmony," said Matthias Remmert, managing director of Friedrich Remmert.

"There is currently a growing tendency towards the use of cell technology for the purpose of constructing and expanding sheet metal working systems.

It is no longer a question of viewing things purely in terms of the storage system and the upstream machine tool, but the machining cell as a whole.

Naturally, the issue of how best to link the storage and machining technology is at the heart of this approach.

With our PRO FMS flexible production system we can open up new horizons for companies specializing in the sheet metal working sector." * Friedrich Remmert at EuroBLECH 2006, Hannover, Germany, October 24-28, Hall 15, Stand B58.

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