Bending cell with palletizing system is profit doubler for Danish supplier

Thanks in part to the deployment of a Euromac bending cell, Danish supplier Camro is able to offer its OEM customers a 25% lower product price. The company deploys the bending cell for workpieces up to 10 kg and series sizes of at least 250 pieces as well as series sizes of 2000+. For this purpose, the bending cell is equipped on the output side with an automated palletizing system where the set workpieces are sorted off on 9 euro pallets. "With that you can cover an entire weekend and the investment has paid for itself in two years," says owner Kurt Sørensen.

A few years back, Camro was largely manufacturing for a subsidiary in products for the pest industry. For those products, the focus is on series production, for which an older Amada robotic press brake, among others, had been used for the past decade. However, since subcontracting activities for OEM companies have grown significantly, the need to expand capacity in punching and bending production has also increased. Camro sees opportunities for further growth and even has the ambition to more than double current sales. That growth must come primarily from expanding the number of multi-year contracts for OEMs from construction, air treatment and the recycling sector, among others. "Where the market for the pest industry fluctuates greatly, the market for the OEM market is stable and offers more growth potential," Kurt Sørensen explains.

Step to latest generation of bending robot

The growth in subcontracting activities also brought with it the need for capacity expansion in bending production. The new bending cell had to be faster, equipped for workpieces up to max 10 kg and preferably with an electrically driven press brake in the basic set-up. "Our dealer put us in touch with Euromac, the Italian manufacturer of sheet metal working machines, at the EuroBlech. Euromac was best able to meet all our requirements with its FX 1547 bending cell (1.5 m, 47 tons)."

A weekend of unmanned production

"Next step in automation was also to tackle logistics further. After all, we also wanted to be able to continue unmanned production for a whole weekend, without any restrictions on the output side. The Euromac FX bending cell was therefore extended with a palletizing system, where the robot stacks all the edged workpieces sorted on 9 euro pallets. In the process, the robot also places cardboard spacers between bent products. Partly due to the high speed, the bent workpieces are ready on the pallets well before the first working day. Adding the palletizing system does cost more space, but provides a higher return because you can produce unmanned for longer. Euromac delivered and installed the complete system."  

Quality Adjustment

"Our OEM customers require quality control in accordance with ISO 9001, where, among other things, we have to demonstrate that the workpieces are delivered with the desired bend angle. For this purpose, the Euromac press brake is equipped with an angle measurement system that precisely measures the angle during the process and automatically adjusts it if necessary," Kurt Sørensen continues.

Up to 40% savings on cost per product

"Deployment of the bending robot leads to a lower cost price anyway, but also to a high constant accuracy. We often ask the customer to adapt his product to the capabilities of our method of production, with which we can achieve savings of up to 40%. It is precisely by providing more service in this area that we manage to retain our customers longer," Kurt Sørensen explains.