Product category:
Pressbrakes and folding machines
News Release from: LVD (UK) | Subject: CNC press brake and shear
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 11 October 2001
Rolling stock builder invests in CNC
press brake
When Neville Rail Projects invested GBP200,000 in a CNC press brake and shear from LVD (UK) it initiated a transformation in railway carriage building at its Kirkby-in-Ashfield factory.
When Neville Rail Projects invested GBP200,000 in a CNC press brake and shear from LVD (UK), not only was the Kirkby-in-Ashfield company implementing a decision to bring in-house all outsourced sheet metalwork, but it was also instigating a strategic policy that will transform its railway carriage construction and refurbishment business and improve assembly times and therefore productivity for its customers Being used for the production of interior panelling, Neville Rail Projects is utilising the extra-large capacities of the six metre 2200kN PPEB nine-axis press brake and the six metre guillotine shear to provide customers with kits of parts involving six metre long panels rather than the traditional 1.5 metre panel sizes
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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This means rail carriage assembly times can be dramatically reduced since fewer individual panels are being used.
"There is going to be a lot of carriage refurbishment over the next few years," says managing director Mike Neville.
"The investment in these LVD machines has put us in a position to be able to offer these part kits, of which as few as three could be required per carriage, containing all the panels for each section's ceiling, lighting and coving areas.
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By providing six metre long panel units, only five panels will be needed to assemble each section of carriage, instead of the usual 10 to 12 which is a considerable saving." There were, however, other reasons why the LVD press brake and shear package was considered essential, continues Mike Neville: "Over the years, CNC punching, milling and sawing has had a tremendous impact on our throughput and quality levels.
The punch press has enabled us to efficiently produce a variety of ceiling panels in-house; the milling machines have replaced what were basically lengthy manual routing operations on extrusions; while the saw can produce in a week what used to take a month using manual operating methods." He follows on to explain that with two old manual press brakes used only for prototype work, the company was well aware it had to uprate its fabrication area in line with its machining capability.
This becomes even more important if the management were to take full control of sheet metalwork while also being able to fully and cost-effectively support its new concept for kit of parts production.
The company's roots stem back to 1907, when Mike Neville's Grandfather established G E Neville and Son as a contractor for the transport of Post Office mail.
The operations on the current site started in 1968 specialising in the manufacture of tipping bodies and the fitting of customised tipper parts.
Established in 1985, Neville Rail Projects, has been involved in many prestige rail contracts including the Kowloon Canton Railway in Hong Kong and, more recently, the refurbishment of London Underground and Mass Transit railway carriages.
There is currently a 60/40 split in turnover generated from rail and transport industries.
An indication of the level of activity that surrounds a carriage refurbishment project, which costs in the region of GBP250,000 compared to GBP1million for a new carriage, is best described through the 'Class 508 Mock-Up' that the company undertook in conjunction with Interfleet Technology and Angel Trains.
>From initial artist's impressions of three variations of interior layouts that utilised a combination of four different makes of seats and two exterior livery schemes, designs were produced and exchanged via e-mail.
Once agreed, the subsequent concept designs were then converted by Neville Rail Projects using its CAD and CAM systems for CNC machining at the Nottinghamshire site.
Almost a century after George Neville founded the company its strong family traditions continue with Mike's two sons fully involved in the business.
All are actively involved in the selection of every new machine, and that included the duo of LVD machines.
"The LVD machines were not the cheapest we looked at - and we looked at quite a few," continues Mike Neville.
"They were selected because of their overall fitness for purpose and especially their robust construction.
For example, the back gauges on the press brake actually looked like they were built for the type of job we had in mind." He continues: "While we saved ourselves a lot of inconvenience and money because the press brake didn't require a foundation pit, we were also impressed by the machine's 'safety edge' tooling which allows components requiring a safety edge and subsequent bends to be formed using a single tooling set-up." "In particular," adds Mike Neville, "the machine's easy-to-use CADMAN Windows-based CNC software has proved very user-friendly, and the system's Quickbend facility for the fast setting of simple or infrequently produced parts - like the creation of S-type bends at the ends of panels has been well received." With Quickbend, only a limited amount of data has to be input at the machine using simple software prompts covering material type, thickness, length, tooling available and number of bend sequences.
From this data, Quickbend immediately determines the angle and appropriate backgauge position for each bend.
Minimum and maximum values for the bend angle and backgauge are provided and it is simply a case of pressing the function key to start the bending cycle.
"You just can't go wrong with it", comments the very confident operator at the machine.
Due to the nature of Neville Rail's business, batches are relatively small, between 20 and 100.
Materials processed are usually aluminium, and mild and stainless steel, of 1.2mm, 2mm, 3mm and 6mm thickness.
The PPEB press brake capacity, "which is ideal for our needs", says Mike Neville embraces a bend length of 6,100 mm, a frame width of 5,050mm, an open height of 485 mm and a stroke of 250mm.
Positioning and working speeds are 100mm and one to 10mm/sec, respectively which reduces bending cycle times and positioning accuracy on Y and X axes is + 0.01mm, and on Z and R axes is + 0.10mm.
Specifications for the shear include a cutting length of 6,200mm, a backgauge depth of 1,000mm, a throat gap of 300mm.
It can operate between 10 and 26 strokes/min and the back gauge positional accuracy is + 0.1mm.
Variable rake adjustment is between 0.5 to 1.5 degrees and blade clearance can be from 0.05mm to 0.6mm.
With an established CNC metalcutting section as well as sophisticated CAD and CAD/CAM facilities, as far as Mike Neville is concerned the LVD machines close the loop for the company in terms of manufacturing technology.
"Importantly," he concludes, "the machines play a key role in enabling us to adhere to our mission statement of being able to get it right, first time, every time and on time!".
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