Deburring for flawless assembly

For deburring, the company engaged Timesavers. Biggest advantage: a directionless finish. For the customers of 247TailorSteel products with a finish are difficult to assemble. 

Frank Gelen is COO at 247TailorSteel. He is responsible for all production, logistics and planning of the Varsseveld-based factory, which makes custom-cut metal sheets, tubes and edge parts. "Our concept is unique," he says. And indeed, the international steel world is watching the operations of 247TailorSteel. 

Laser cutting

At the company, metal sheets are cut to size quickly and efficiently, using CNC-controlled laser cutting machines from Trumpf. And although there are multiple machining techniques to customize a metal sheet, the company chooses 247TailorSteel for laser cutting. This machining technique provides a particularly narrow cutting width and enables the cutting of complex shapes. Very precise profiles and small holes are cut with great precision. The almost perpendicular cutting edge is very neat, with exceptionally small grooves and trailing lines and (virtually) no slag.

Artificial intelligence drives production

Gelen: "People can upload their own products on our site and know the price and delivery time within a minute. Deliver within 48 hours? Or within a week or three? The price level adjusts accordingly. There is no salesperson involved. But one does get immediate advice on the manufacturability of the work, and that is very special." 247TailorSteel uses what is known as Sophia for this online ordering method. That stands for Sophisticated Intelligent Analyser and works with artificial intelligence that controls production and logistics. Thus, 'she' generates laser-cut metal sheets, tubes and edge parts in no time, without human support. Customers can upload their entire "product," Sophia reduces it to parts and determines what operations are needed on them and also hangs a price tag on them. 

Increasing demand

Gelen recalls a customer who had loaded a product file of 1,500 products. Within 15 minutes, this customer had received a customized price of every single product through Sophia. He still regularly marvels at the power of their proprietary software. "For example, we also supply artists who make partitions out of steel for restaurants. In those partitions, the artists make figures that they have us print out. From Ameland to Maastricht you see these printed parts on terraces and at restaurants." Most customers of 247TailorSteel are currently still in the Benelux, but demand in our neighboring countries is rising rapidly. Demand is spreading like an oil slick, through Germany to Scandinavia, Switzerland and Austria. Hence 247TailorSteel is looking for a location near Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Because even there they want to be able to deliver within 48 hours. 

Directionless

At all locations of 247TailorSteel brush machines from Timesavers are used. "We use them to remove burrs, called edge rounding. You see with deburring that some suppliers polish. As a result, you see some kind of direction on the metal. We don't know how our customers assemble the products ordered from us means that you have to set up the machine properly and stick to the settings. You are then left with a very even rounding, even on very fine and small products. And importantly, without any particular direction on the product." Deburring is done at 247TailorSteel in the process between cutting and edging. "With that, we make sure the burrs are neatly gone before we do the edging. Timesavers guided us smoothly during the installation of the first machine. Much of the future manufacturing industry in the Netherlands will soon be working in a way that we do with our partners at Timesavers. I myself come from the world of machining and I think that what we do here in terms of cutting could also be done in machining."

Stand time

Gelen: "Thanks to the movement of the brushes, this deburring machine leaves a very even pattern. The brushes themselves are very special. I have to be honest: the purchase cost was quite high. It is also a wear part, so I actually had my reservations. In use, we find that the tool life of the brushes is very high, higher than others. And so it actually makes no difference in consumption." He noticed another advantage when replacing parts. Timesavers has come up with quick release fasteners for that, so you don't need any tools to adjust anything. You can quickly and easily take the machine apart and clean it. "That was really thought out," Gelen states.