This case study illustrates how a problem faced by a panel manufacturer was solved by a low cost automation solution.

Snapshot

Industry: Electronics and Electricals
Product: Aluminium and Composite Panel Manufacture
Customer: Under NDA
Average turnover: Rs 8-10 million USD

A company had recently secured a large order for Aluminium Electrical Panels, and was having a tough time with de-burring the machined/punched panels. The company had a hired a lot of manpower but despite that was not getting the desired finish quality required in the end product. Also the time taken to finish each panel was too long.

The challenges and constraints

The client company is engaged in the business of making electrical panels and cabinets for a power transmission network. The company was using non-ferrous metals like aluminium and composites. After securing a large order from a customer, the company was forced to hire many unskilled labourers to punch and machine these various profiles on the panels. The profiles had a lot of burrs and a lot of time, labour and energy were going into the de-burring operation alone, and the time taken for the de-burring operation was slowing down the production process, and in addition the quality check/inspection from the customer were causing further delays.

The client was forced to employ more labour and supervisors to oversee the production and the entire operation was not economically viable.

The solution

The Fibonacci team was quick to understand the challenge and came out with a simple effective solution.

Fibonacci designed and fabricated a 3-axis CNC controller, with a high speed air-cooled spindle (24,000 rpm). The machine was custom made as per the job requirements, complete with a vacuum bed, an easy to use 15” touch screen display with controller.

The client could now machine the profiles on the panel and also de-burr them, as per the program fed to the system.

This proved to be a fast and effective solution. Fibonacci designed the machine to be robust and mechanically accurate using high accuracy ballscrews and linear motion guides.

This enabled the client company to clock high production output with consistent finish quality, the manpower required was also down to a minimum and the end customer understanding the efforts and quality of the product, now placed more orders in larger volumes.

The solution provider

Fibonacci Automation Consultancy, formerly Mitra Engineering, is headed by a first generation technocrat experienced in controllers and machine tool design spanning over 30 years, with sound knowledge of the evolution of machine tool design, interface and automation. The company has a rich and diverse experience in field of special purpose machines (SPMs). It has also designed and developed various machine tools, SPMs and automation solutions for the defense and allied industries, composites, automobile, agri- and food processing, and several other domains; many of these have been exported globally via a sister concern.

The USP of the company is to offer low cost high tech lean automation solutions for all kinds of industries. The mission is to understand, design, engineer and provide innovative solutions to all types of industries and enterprises to help achieve their super goals via innovation, design and automation. The vision is to be a one-stop-shop for any kind of enterprise seeking to improve product, quality, design and production via innovation and automation.

To this end, the company offers a clutch of services in terms of:

* Design, product development & fabrication
* In house manufacturing using the best CNC controlled lathes, milling and jig boring system
* Project viability study
* Automation solutions & custom designed CNC controllers
* Prototyping metal or plastic – with a wide range of highly accurate world class Polyjet, FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) and EOS metal prototyping systems and CAD design team that caters to a wide array of innovative product concepts and designs
* FEA – Finite Element Analysis, testing and certification, and
* Data management interface built into automation solutions.

Fibonacci Automation Consultancy Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad. Mobile: 093906-49752, 098850-09602. Email: fibonacciautomation@gmail.com, bandaruabhishek@yahoo.com