With a history that dates back over seven decades, Teksign based in Brantford, Ontario, makes signs for the petroleum, automotive, hotel and agricultural equipment industries. For its forming needs, the company was using an older press brake that was labour-intensive.

“With the press brake, the operator would have to set up for every single bend, every time,” said Jim Hahn, production control manager at Teksign. “It would take two operators to manage the bends on a number of jobs we did.”

The company decided it was time to update its forming capabilities. Teksign has high-mix/low-volume production needs, and several of its projects are repeat business. This led to an investment in a CNC-equipped folder.

Teksign purchased the RAS TURBO2plus metal folding machine. The machine has several features that are ideal for the company’s fabrication needs. With the RAS Bendex software, an operator can automatically program parts, use alternative bending sequences and view the bending sequence on the monitor in 3D. The machine has a 3.2 m bend length and accommodates tool heights up to 127 mm.

“Its ability to store a significant number of programs simplifies our bending operations substantially,” says Hahn. “I’d say that we are cutting our forming time by 50-60% just in set-up time alone, between our former requirements of having to change dies and other actions. Now we can build much more, much faster, because we can easily switch from one job to another with the press of a few buttons.”

Teksign can also manage maintenance concerns remotely with its new RAS metal folding machine.

Says Hahn: “The team at RAS can take over our machine if we need something fixed or want something better explained. It makes it very user-friendly.”

RAS machines are available in the UK from Press & Shear.

For further information
www.pressandshear.com