How can industrial manufacturers optimize their production processes in an environment that requires constant dynamics in order to combine high production rates and flexible deployment options? At the 16th Blechexpo, Prima Power presented solutions that are modular and scalable to meet customers’ expectations and be ready for their future growth.
In every industry, manufacturers need to expand their business to meet the growing demands of a highly competitive market. They need to evolve by optimizing processes and resources, automating production and saving energy and money. Prima Power is at the customer’s side during this transformation, offering them the unique ability to integrate its wide range of modular and scalable technologies into their processes to improve their production performance. This ability is deeply rooted in the brand’s philosophy and is supported by a strong technical knowledge and customer-oriented approach. At Blechexpo, Prima Powern showed how targeted solutions optimize customers’ production processes by combining several work steps into one and automatically processing a wide range of materials through to finished bent products.
© Prima Power
Integrated production line solves the conflicting goals of productivity and flexibility
Prima Power presented the following production solution as a world premiere at Blechexpo: a production line with a combined Combi Genius punching and laser cutting machine, an LSR loading, unloading and stacking robot, an eP Genius 1030 servo-electric press brake with integrated tool change storage and a 7-axis industrial robot.
With its winning combination of productivity and flexibility, this system is a suitable solution for a wide range of materials and the manufacture of complex products. Designed as an efficient process solver and sophisticated production line, it can also handle tighter bends, thicker materials and more complex assemblies. These properties make them a tool for various industries, such as mechanical engineering and the yellow goods industry (construction machinery).
Visitors to the stand were able to discover the benefits of Prima Power software networking as if they were in a real production environment. They were able to experience how a highly efficient, seamless flow from ERP ordering to machine production can be achieved with just a few clicks, and gain a complete overview of simple and clear production planning, control and diagnostics, as well as a faster response to production changes.
© Prima Power
Powerful and flexible technologies make up the production line
The system on display at the Prima Power stand at Blechexpo is based on the Combi Genius, the next generation for combined punching and laser cutting. The model has a larger combined working area, better cutting performance (6 kW laser power) with a new cutting head and efficient gas mixer as well as improved robot performance.
The main advantages of this are, firstly, a significant reduction in cycle times thanks to a 25 percent higher cutting speed, secondly, a 25 percent saving in gas consumption and, last but not least, an enormous overall improvement in the cutting quality of highly sensitive materials such as aluminum. The increased performance of the Combi Genius contributes to the unparalleled flexibility of this automatic multi-purpose solution, which integrates various work steps to speed up production and reduce manufacturing costs.
For efficient and precise handling of the material flow from the punch-laser combination system and the bending cell, the system exhibited in Stuttgart has an LSR. loading, unloading and stacking robot. The robot loads sheets into the machine and stacks finished workpieces on stacking pallets.
Once the parts have been punched and cut using the Combi Genius and processed by LSR, they can be bent using the state-of-the-art eP Genius 1030 press brake with integrated 7-axis industrial robot.
The eP1030 is the best-selling machine in the servo-electric press brake product family and is supplied with an automatic tool changer that can hold 28 meters of upper and lower bending tools (dies and punches) on seven shelves. This press brake offers a more versatile, faster and more reliable bending solution that eliminates the need for manual machine set-up.
The real innovation of the eP Genius is that it is equipped with a robot for loading and unloading. This makes it possible to work completely unmanned and use the operator’s time for relevant activities such as preparing and checking production programs.
In a direct mode, the robot picks up the parts released by the LSR of the Combi Genius on a roller table, places them on the press brake for bending and unloads them onto the pallets positioned on the floor. The robot can also operate in a temporary buffer mode, i.e. in a continuous process with a temporary waiting condition.
The robot cell is equipped with a sheet metal turner that enables the robot to turn the part or component to be bent before stacking if this is required by the operating program. It also has a gripper storage system that can accommodate three different grippers, which are automatically reset by the robot when they are not in use.
Prima Power
Prima Power is the sheet metal processing brand of Prima Industrie and the group for industrial innovation with 1,900 employees, 15,000 systems, 8 plants and an annual turnover of around 500 million euros.
Web:
www.primapower.com
