"Ready again for the next 20 years"

Closures. Swing gates or sliding gates. Manual or automatic. To call the range of Kopal broad is an understatement. From its production workshop in Kortemark, West Flanders, the company goes very far in fulfilling customer wishes. Main players in this story are the sawing machines, which deliver the profiles and tubes to the size of the welders. With the arrival of Behringer's HBE 320-523 G, supplied by Promatt, Kopal wants to be ready again for the next twenty years.

What began with welding and painting a few gates as a sideline activity within an existing company quickly grew into the success story that is Kopal. In no time, the move from the village center of the West Flemish town of Kortemark to a nearby industrial area was imminent. There, Kopal now has 59,000 m² of surface area with 25,000 m² of commercial buildings. The 90 employees produce around 20,000 gates per year, from garden gates to large industrial gates. 

"The same motives behind the growth of then still drive us forward today. From the start, we have resolutely focused on developing everything under one roof, from profiles to fully finished products. We are constantly thinking about how to further innovate and optimize," production engineer Wim Ide summarizes the company's strengths. 

The finest example of this is the in-house developed automation, invisibly concealed in the design of the gate. "Every gate that leaves the company here is fully checked and inspected. The installer gets a finished product from us, completely according to his customer's wishes, with CE label."

Sawing machine must not stop

A unique way of working, which makes Kopal not only a pioneer in fully automated gates, but also market leader on the Belgian market, with a solid reputation abroad. The flexibility and tight focus on the customer are certainly something in between. Although customers can choose the gate they want from a thick catalog - whether it's industrial sliding steel gates or a sleek aluminum gate for the private market - Kopal goes to great lengths to customize and finish everything to their liking. 

An important prerequisite for this is our own high-performance machinery," says Stijn Pylyser, production engineer. Crucial on the shop floor is the sawing department, which is seven machines strong, spread throughout the workshop. "We can't afford to have these machines shut down. They give us the flexibility to quickly prepare the right profiles for our welders." 

Towards greater capacity, efficiency and ease of use

To anticipate potential problems, Kopal decided to replace its largest saw machine, which had more than 20 years on the clock, in a timely manner. Ide: "The intention was to take another step forward. To capacity, but also to efficiency and to ease of use." 

An extensive exploration of the market led Kopal to Behringer's HBE 320-523 G. "The confidence in the brand was already there. We still have an old circular saw here that is still proving its worth after 20 years. And the reputation of supplier Promatt's technology and service among metalworkers around here also came up quickly. Don't hesitate, they told us," Pylyser recalls. 

Still, Kopal did not go overnight. Careful consideration was given to whether an automatic would be a better investment. "In the end, we stayed with the system we know, semi-automatic with two-hand operation. We have to change too much between profiles to really reap the benefits of a fully automatic sawing machine," Ide adds.

Automatically the right support

Still, Kopal tried to go as far as possible in increasing operator efficiency and ease of use by choosing the right options. Pylyser: "Sliding lifting roller table with powered rollers, for example, complemented by automatic angle adjustment and automatic stop, so that the profiles and tubes always receive the right support for a perfect cut. Furthermore, powered roller conveyors ensure smooth supply and removal of the profiles. We believe this will save the sawyer time in the long run, because he can control everything from the machine, he does not have to make any adjustments himself anywhere. Moreover, these things also benefit ease of operation and productivity." 

Really measuring how much that all adds up to in practice now, Kopal has not yet been able to do so. "The machine has only been working here for three weeks. But everything so far has gone perfectly as agreed. In any case, it has given us peace of mind that we are again completely up-to-date with sawing technology and ready for the next 20 years," Ide concludes.