A month’s work in days to combat COVID-19

A company making heater plates for medical ventilators, suddenly found its annual order of around 160,000 doubled immediately, as the coronavirus crisis took hold. HV Wooding has produced heater plates for ventilator humidification chambers since 2004, but in the fight against COVID-19, its customer, Intersurgical, increased the order substantially.

At the same time, the company was asked to prototype three components for the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium. The Hythe-based company’s experience in CNC laser cutting – programmed with Radan sheet-metal software – meant it was ready to join the battle to save lives.
“Radan meant we could quickly condense all the necessary up-front work, which would normally take at least a month, into just a few days, and we successfully manufactured and delivered 2000 sets of each of the three components in a very short time frame,” explains sales director Paul Allen. The parts had to be laser cut and formed, then fitted with inserts before being sent to the assembly line at Luton. Allen says Radan played a major role in meeting this challenge.
For further information www.radan.com

Four directors named at A&M EDM

A&M EDM, a Smethwick-based precision engineering company, has promoted four of its managers to director positions as it seeks out future development. The promotions are: Lee Finch, production director EDM; Stuart Talbot, production director CNC; Gary Surman, technical director CNC; and Arthur Watts, technical director EDM.

Manufacturing precision components and tooling for aerospace, automotive, manufacturing assembly and motorsport customers, the workforce at A&M EDM has doubled since 2013, to 70 staff, with annual sales of over £6m.
The company’s newly appointed directors will work with managing director Mark Wingfield on future strategy, and assume responsibility for day-to-day operations across the company’s two factories.
Watts and Finch are responsible for A&M’s spark and wire-erosion EDM output. A&M started business in 2002 as an EDM contact shop and now offers one of the largest commercial EDM services in the UK.
Surman and Talbot will lead A&M’s growing precision machining capabilities. The company currently has 29 CNC milling and turning machines that manufacture prototypes and production runs of components and tools.
“All four have made an invaluable contribution to A&M’s success as managers; they are all talented engineers who will ensure we continue to prosper and deliver quality components as fast as possible for our customers,” says Wingfield.
For further information www.amedm.co.uk

€3m savings at steelmaking facility

A steelmaker based in Poland is saving nearly €3m per year after switching to NSK´s sealed-clean KVS bearings in its roll mill.

Such has been the superior performance of these four-row tapered roller bearings that the company has adopted the solution for all of its tandem cold mills. NSK KVS bearings are said to offer 2-4 times longer life than standard bearings. There are many reasons behind this elevated level of performance. For instance, a special type of bore seal averts the build-up of negative pressure that can cause the entry of water through the main seals.
For further information www.nskeurope.com

Accolade secured for eighth year running

3D printing specialist SYS Systems has been reaccredited with a coveted industry standard from the world’s biggest additive manufacturing company.

The Stratasys reseller has been awarded UK platinum partner status from its OEM – the eighth consecutive year that the honour has been bestowed on the Derbyshire firm.
This status – the highest possible recognition from Stratasys – is only awarded to high-performing partners based on strict proficiency criteria, including exceptional levels of customer service, training and support to back-up machine sales.
For further information www.sys-uk.com/additive

Second Kasto storage system ARRIVES AT AMCO

Based in Bremen, AMCO Metall Service stocks large quantities of aluminium, copper, brass and bronze in its 55,000 sq m facility and delivers 25,000 tonnes annually to customers mainly in the plant building, metal processing, construction, transportation and shipbuilding sectors. The German family firm has 270 employees and an annual turnover of around €100m.

To meet customer demands, AMCO Metall Service has a particularly wide range of material in stock – over 7000 tonnes, in fact – guaranteeing excellent availability of goods. The company supplies all parts tailored to needs and flexibly adjusts to suit batch sizes.
Increasing demand for cut-to-size material meant that AMCO’s service centre for semi-finished materials was running out of space. So, to streamline efficiency for holding and picking material, including billets and plate, the company installed a Unigrip 3.0 automated, honeycomb-type cassette storage system. The Unigrip 3.0 system was built by Kasto, located some 600 km further south in Achern. Since then, AMCO has enjoyed fast access to its materials, machined parts and remnants, and has consequently increased its pre-machining and order picking productivity.
Jan Hendrik Schmidt, managing director of AMCO says: “Growth in this area of our business presented us with a challenge. We needed additional storage space to expand, and wanted to renew our conventional racking system.

“The new solution had to ensure high availability of metals and make efficient use of the available space,” he adds. “Sawing to length, three- to five-axis prismatic machining and picking also had to be interlinked with the system. To increase profitability, we were keen to avoid damage to material caused by handling and storage, and we also wanted to reduce order picking costs.”
kasto was already a supplier to AMCO, having manufactured and delivered in 2013 a Unicompact 3.0 long-goods storage system that has proved successful in operation.
Schmidt says: “Kasto had particular advantages, notably the impressive degree of added value they offered compared with competitors, ranging from software development to the supply of spares. Existing, proven interfaces ensured simple integration into our ERP system, and Kasto’s employees gave us competent advice before we placed the order.”
The Unigrip 3.0 industrial store in Bremen has 1365 storage locations and is 68 m long, over 21 m wide and 6.7 m in height. Five types of cassette, from 6.5 to 6.7 m long and 1.6 m wide, hold the stockholder’s materials; the maximum load per cassette being three tonnes. The storage and retrieval machine (SRM) travels longitudinally at up to 120 m/min to ensure efficient material movement. Laser measuring delivers precise positioning and contour controls monitor that goods do not overhang and hinder their transfer.

Via a standard Profibus DP fieldbus, the proprietary KASTOlogic control orchestrates all functions, including drive controllers, manual control units and weighing electronics. AMCO can create or change data quickly and receives reliable information on inventories and cassette availability. Storage zones can be managed to optimise the SRM’s travel, while incoming orders are automatically assigned to the relevant processing stations. The Unigrip then provides stock and remnants to the machine tools and subsequently stores pre-machined parts and remnants.
To speed fault diagnosis and help with operational problems, Kasto’s service centre in Achern can access the storage system in Bremen remotely and control all functions of the KASTOlogic. Changes to the program or parameters can be carried out cost-effectively, without the need for Kasto staff to visit the site.
Schmidt explains: “Our investment in the Kasto solution has paid off handsomely and our goals and expectations have been fully met. The storage facility perfectly fulfils its intended functions of storing material and acting as a buffer for holding
pre-cut and machined parts, which are logically stored and accessed quickly and reliably.”
He is also pleased with other process advantages. Damage to material during transportation and handling has been virtually eliminated and AMCO has been able to reduce significantly its fleet of forklift trucks, as the storage system delivers the required materials to where they are needed.
“Co-operation between our staff and Kasto’s employees is very positive,” concludes Schmidt. “Technical optimisations during the running-in phase were quickly and fully completed, while ongoing adjustments take place continuously and are efficiently supported by the supplier.”
AMCO says its customers can count on state-of-the- art machinery and well-founded know-how of the sector. In short: as a reliable all-round supplier and partner, the company will make procurement – as well as the processing of non-ferrous metals (aluminium, copper, brass and bronze) – as easy as possible.
With its new corporate motto “When metal and service shine”, AMCO is setting its own bar for quality and first-class customer orientation. In doing so, the specialist knowledge of the company’s employees provide the finishing touch. Many market leaders and medium-sized companies from a multitude of sectors already place their trust in AMCO.
For further information www.kasto.com