CNC punch press speeds factory responsiveness

SS extraction system maker said that its CNC punch press investment has dramatically reduced manufacturing times and allows it to now respond quickly to last-minute design changes.

A UK company that designs, manufactures and installs of stainless steel (SS) extraction systems and high-quality fabricated items for commercial kitchens said that its purchase of an LVD Parma 1225 CNC punch press enables it to respond quickly to last-minute product design changes.

Based in Colchester, Goldstar Fabrication and Ventilation added that the CNC punch press also dramatically reduced manufacturing times and enables the company to respond quickly to and take on work that it could not previously have done.

Goldstar employs around 60 people, turns over around GBP 4 million a year and includes among its customers restaurant chains such as Tony Roma's and Chiquito's, individual restaurants, schools and retail developments such as the prestigious Westfield Centre in Derby.

As Managing director Martyn Wilks explained, "Commercial catering is a booming market too.

If you walk around London now, virtually every other shop front is some kind of restaurant; at high rent levels selling food is often the only way you can make money.

And all of those restaurants need stainless steel kitchens and extraction hoods - so they need someone like us who can make and fit them".

Wilks added: "Everything we do is bespoke so there is no question of making items for stock - everything is made to order and each unit is generally a one-off".

Tight lead times - Goldstar offers a design and install service, and never experinces long enough lead times.

It is generally a matter of weeks, but Wilks said that with the new machine the company will be able to respond even more quickly if it has to.

Wilks said: "The kitchen always seems to be the last piece in the jigsaw - and things change during the build programme.

Sometimes you can still be installing hours before the restaurant is due to open".

He explained: "So we need to be flexible, and the arrival of the Parma gives us more of that essential flexibility because it allows us to do things quicker, more easily, and with less manual handling.

Typically the fabrications began with a SS sheet that is cut to size and then notched to allow it to be formed up into counters, extractor hoods, sink tops and so on.

Before it had the LVD Parma, Goldstar cuts the sheet to size on a guillotine and then cuts out the notches by hand.

Wilks said: "I talked to my managers last year and asked them what they thought we should be investing in - and they both said either a laser or a turret press.

We looked at the LVD Parma punch press and saw that it was exactly what we wanted.

It had the functionality we required at the right price.

It was easy to justify on the basis of the amount of time it would save and the fact that it would allow us to do additional work".

In terms of time saving, for example, a sink top used to take around 4h of manual work - notching the corners, cutting out the shape for the sink bowl, cutting holes for the taps and so on.

The work is now done on the CNC punch press in 2 min 40s.

Going from drawing to part via Autocad and CADman P also means that there is a lot less potential for error than giving a paper drawing to a man on the shop floor - so there will be less scrap too, said Wilks.

He said: "We only punch up to 2mm stainless, so we didn't need a big heavy machine, and the Parma has a 20t (200kN) punching force.

The turret has 21 tool stations, including three auto-indexing stations, so we generally keep to a standard tool setup on all our work - maybe changing one tool at most.

And although we haven't really explored the possibility yet, the Parma will also allow us to do form work such as rolling in ribs and drains".

The first project to benefit from the Parma was for a Chiquito's restaurant in Manchester.

This was made up of about 18 complete fabricated items, adding up to hundreds of individual components.

* Week's manufacturing time saved - Goldstar's senior designer, Annette Patmore, said: "We punched everything out on the LVD Parma within a few days and saved maybe a week in manufacturing time compared to the first Chiquito's kitchen we did.

The parts were much more consistent too, had a better edge finish and we had much less material wastage.

We will have done four Chiquito's' kitchens by the end of December, so the punch press will have saved a month already this year".

Most of the components are fairly large and batch sizes are low, so there is not much call for nesting.

The only exception to this is on holding trays for a proprietary steam cooking system that may be made in batches of 1000-off.

The Thermodyne system is a way of cooking food and holding at the serving temperature using steam.

The food is placed on stainless steel trays that are perforated with 6mm holes to let the steam circulate.

There are 207 holes per tray and Goldstar nests 34 trays onto one sheet - a total of more than 7000 holes per sheet.

Each tray takes just 92s to perforate and cut out on the Parma, and each sheet takes a total of 52 min.

Wilks concluded: "There is absolutely no way we could have done that without the Parma.

It will completely change the whole way the company does business".

* About LVD - the LVD Group is a leading manufacturer of a comprehensive range of sheet metal/plate working machine tools and software solutions, including laser cutting systems, punch presses, press brakes, guillotine shears and mid-level automation systems, integrated and supported by its CADMAN PC-based Windows compatible software.

The Group's UK subsidiary, LVD, has its headquarters, showroom and service centre in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

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