Automation has always been one of the main distinguishing factors of Salvagnini on all its product lines. Automation that becomes flexible and modular, based on the specific requirements and needs of each customer. If we look at our market, we cannot ignore the growing tendency to invest in automation, and not just with the aim of significantly reducing the impact of labor costs: if we calculate that a fully automated system allows efficiency to be increased by at least 25-30% compared to a stand-alone system, the benefits of these configurations are evident.

 

The laser industry is no exception: over the past 3 years, more than 60% of installations have been provided with unmanned loading/unloading solutions and more than half of these automations are full-featured configurations with sheet feeding and automatic sorting of cut parts. The wide range of Salvagnini products is also decisive, allowing the customer's production flow to be streamlined: the automatic loading-unloading connections ADL and ADLL allow automatic pick-up of sheets from a pack of raw material in masked time and also automate unloading of processed sheets, eliminating intermediate handling and allowing integration with vertical pack store-towers. MTW mini-warehouses, highly modular in the number of storage positions and lay-out solutions, and LTW single-tower stores can also be provided. Finally, MCL is the automatic sorting solution for unloading, separating and stacking, equipped with two rotating manipulators.

 

Flexible fiber laser + panel bending + bending manufacturing cell

 

"Imecon Engineering S.r.l. specialiszes in the design, prototyping and production of turnkey technological solutions for digital signage, in which it has developed a range of products with features unique on the market," explains Alessio Vairani, CVO of Imecon Engineering S.r.l. "Our company was born as an electronic and computer company, but from the beginning we focused not so much on the integration of components as on the development of new high-end products, totally customiszed according to the needs of customers, who are often large international advertising companies. Precisely because we wanted to be producers and not integrators, every single production phase has been internalised, from research and development to quality control, to reach the highest standards in terms of the reliability of the outgoing products. And precisely because we wanted to be producers, we also vertically integrated metal carpentry. In this sense we had to face two challenges: to guarantee the customer high and consistent quality right from the prototyping phase, and to reduce our lead time as much as possible. Therefore we decided to invest in a Salvagnini LTW vertical warehouse equipped with 15 loading trays able to automatically feed an L3 fiber laser, and integrated into a FlexCell composed also of a P4 panel bender and a B3 press brake. We are enthusiastic about the results: stocking different materials allows us to effortlessly manage single units or small batches, which represent the main part of our production. Even the lay-out has been taken care of in every detail to simplify the flow of parts between machines: the conveyor connects the laser to the bending cell, feeding it automatically and quickly. The synthesis between B3 and P4, that we have chosen in a particularly rich configuration with DPM, CLA and CUT, allows us great flexibility and a very wide variety of parts and ensures the feasibility of practically every type of bend. As well as solving our problems related to custom production, in which we are able to work practically in real time with consistently high quality, this setup today has allowed us to open up new markets: we offer our standard range of products, which are highly competitive not only on a technological level but also on an economic one, with a 24-hour lead time," claims Vairani.

 

Panel bending manufacturing cell, with automatic separation and intermediate storage of parts

 

"Zanardo SpA is a leading company in the production of metal carpentry for electrical systems and industrial automation, and creates specific products, with appropriate characteristics and certifications, for similarly specific application sectors. The group is deeply rooted in the Veneto region, but for years now we have been present on international markets and our products are distributed in most of Europe, the United States, South Africa and Australia," says Piero Zanardo, Technical Office Manager at Zanardo SpA. "In our sector, especially in the last few years and for companies similar in size to ours, it has become increasingly crucial to be able to work on special and custom products while keeping the lead time as low as possible, ideally between 48 and 72 hours. Precisely for this reason, when we were planning an investment in the laser sector, we looked for a system that would allow us not only to obtain high cutting performance and to achieve the maximum flexibility possible, but also to be part of an integrated process. The MTW system that Salvagnini has created for us was the perfect answer for our needs: it is able to manage the storage of up to 30 different materials, which can be recalled based on suddenly variable needs and are therefore available practically in real time. The L5 high dynamic fiber laser has allowed us to quadruple our productivity compared to our old CO2 laser. Lastly, the Cartesian manipulator separates and stacks the machined parts, reinserting them into the MTW warehouse: from here they can be quickly made available for unloading or for a special downstream station, ready for the P2L panel bender," concludes Zanardo.

 

Communication provided by the management of the company)