The Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire uses large quantities of profile steel in a wide variety of geometries, lengths and bends, which is why it has invested in a modern production line featuring an automatic mitre bandsaw from Behringer. The Behringer HBP410-723GA saws round profiles up to a diameter of 410 mm and flat material up to 600 mm wide.

The saw line is loaded on the infeed side by means of a transversal lift truck, which enables the buffering of round, square and flat bars with an initial length of up to 12 m. Material is positioned using two grippers, one on the infeed side and a section gripper on the outfeed side. The combination of the two grippers ensures safe material handling; even short sections sawn on a mitre are transported away reliably. The system is supplemented by an automatic marking system with inkjet technology for marking the sawn parts, eliminating manual labelling and reducing sources of error.

Cuts and offcuts are removed from the machine using a section gripper and disposed of on a material table directly behind the mitre bandsaw with a push-off device. The operator does not need to do anything. The sawn good parts are also removed by the gripper on the discharge side, moved over the discharge roller conveyor and placed on a material store arranged parallel to the roller conveyor with another push-off device. The discharge gripper easily clamps and moves cuts, offcuts and parts from 50 mm to 12 m in length.

Using this sawing solution, Chantier de l’Atlantique was able to reduce its cycle times by 50% compared with the old sawing system and drastically increase throughput – all with fewer personnel.

For further information
www.behringer.net