Metal-stamping specialist Brandauer has spent £600,000 on a Yamada Dobby NXT 80XL as part of a three-year plan to boost its capacity and provide additional production flexibility at its Birmingham facility. The technology gives the company a 100% reduction in press setting time that releases manufacturing capacity to take on new contract wins in the plumbing, automotive motor lamination and fuel cell segments.

Thanks to the arrival of the Yamada Dobby NXT 80XL, Brandauer has topped off the £2 million modernisation of its facility, a spend which has also included a new GF wire-cut EDM machine, two Andmar surface grinders and an OGP Smartscope Vantage 250 to help with inspection.
Operations manager at Brandauer, Don Walters, says: “We first came across the press at Blechexpo and were impressed with what we saw in terms of its speed, repeatable quality and usability. Our subsequent visit to their showroom in Italy gave us the chance to see the Yamada in all its glory, and we worked with their experts to configure the machine so it delivers the accuracy and performance required.”
It took just nine months from the order being placed for the Yamada NXT 80XL press to be installed and commissioned, with the machine now working on components that use material ranging in thickness from 0.2 to 0.8 mm. The 1.5 m bed is the largest the company currently has available, and it can operate at speeds of between 100 and 800 strokes per minute.
Press shop team leader Karl Jeavons says: “The quality is second to none and we run off thousands and thousands of components every day,
thanks in part to the double link motion mechanism that delivers Yamada’s repeatability, while helping to prolong the life of the tool.
For further information www.brandauer.co.uk