The ByTrans 6225 Flex Cross automation system at CO Constructing Techniques covers 5,339 sq. ft., supporting a Bystronic laser that has helped to redefine how the corporate thinks about effectivity in its laser reducing operation. CO Constructing Techniques
For fabricators all over the place, high quality and precision are irreplaceable. However generally, it actually does come down to hurry.
Some current Bystronic installations at CO Constructing Techniques Inc., a producer of pre-engineered metal buildings in Ephraim, Utah, bear that out in a few methods. The extra outstanding of the 2, the set up of a modular automation system, stands out not solely as a result of it was the primary large-platform automation system shipped from Bystronic’s manufacturing unit in Switzerland, but additionally due to the remarkably quick period of time it took the 2 corporations to put in it this previous June.
However extra about that later.
Chopping Quicker as a Bonus
What got here first for CO Constructing Techniques was the Bystronic 12-kW ByStar Fiber 6225 flat laser that was put in in November 2024.
In a single six-hour shift each day, the 100-person firm runs about 35,000 lbs. of gentle metal via the laser. A giant portion of that load are built-up members for metal building: I-beams, brackets, net sections, and infrequently connection plates. The majority are flat constructing panels, the vast majority of that are 3/16-in. flat carbon metal.
CO Constructing’s laser contains an edge detection digital camera, a components and scrap conveyor, and an automated nozzle changer. In lower than a 12 months, the machine has revolutionized how the corporate produces metallic structural components. Beforehand, the corporate used a plasma cutter to course of these components, which labored to its satisfaction for years—that’s, till the fiber laser got here alongside.
“We’re in all probability 50% extra environment friendly than we have been,” CO Constructing Techniques Flooring Supervisor Dean Holden stated. “We went from a plasma cutter that was working about 120 in. per minute, and I believe we’re into the 600 mark now.
“Lots of people buy this stuff for high quality, however we’re after velocity—velocity is our recreation right here.”
That’s to not say that precision has been an issue. Holden stated that on thicker materials—the corporate will reduce as much as 1-in. plate for a few of its components—the laser isn’t any quicker than the plasma cutter, however “these lasers are loads higher with accuracy and high quality,” he famous.
Automation in File Time
As large a deal as that enhance in productiveness has been for CO Constructing, the even greater deal was in all probability that the 2 corporations put in and commissioned a modular automation system in a matter of just some weeks in Could and June to help the laser.
By means of a mixture of modular building, pre-installation testing on the manufacturing unit, and a number of assistance on the bottom, CO Constructing Techniques was in a position to knock down the set up time of its automation system by a number of weeks. Bystronic
CO Constructing positioned two shuttle tables on the bottom of the large system, which measures 112.4 ft. by 47.5 ft. A big vacuum unit hundreds sheets from one desk into the laser, and whereas the laser cuts that first sheet, the loader locations the subsequent sheet on the opposite shuttle desk. When the laser completes the cuts on the primary sheet, it conveys it out of the reducing zone and pulls within the second sheet to begin the subsequent spherical of cuts.
A fork unit then travels perpendicular to the desk to choose up the completed sheet of components and drop it off on one among two carts. That cart then strikes outdoors the system to a spot the place operators can take away the completed components from the skeleton one sheet at a time or look forward to the stack of completed sheets to achieve a predetermined restrict earlier than they take away the components. The latter choice permits the system to run lights-out when and if CO Constructing wishes it.
This sort of operation wasn’t at all times the norm for Bystronic.
A number of years in the past, Bystronic bought Antil S.p.A., an Italian firm that specialised in automation techniques for fabricators. Udo Drafz, regional service operations director for Bystronic, stated that Antil S.p.A. was excellent at designing and constructing one-off customized techniques however not pretty much as good at implementing customary manufacturing practices.
That’s why Bystronic transferred that operation to Switzerland—a change that helped the corporate create the modular automation system that it’s now promoting worldwide. It was the primary of three strikes that yielded the answer now working at CO Constructing, which was the primary such Bystronic system to be manufactured within the land of gorgeous mountains, tremendous watches, and Roger Federer.
“In the event you wanted one thing 32 ft. by 72-1/3 in., Antil S.p.A. would put that collectively very neatly and do it, however they weren’t excellent at making 100 of them,” Drafz stated. “And now Switzerland took over the method and improved the best way they did it in order that now the system is much less versatile—it has some customary sizes, widths, and lengths—however it’s modular. So now, it’s like Lego items, the place you say, ‘OK, I’ve one laser that I wish to load from the again, and I would like 60 totally different supplies caught on 30 cabinets.’ After which Switzerland takes the modules to make that up and places them collectively within the set.”
A second notable change made by Bystronic: Not like at any time earlier than, the automation techniques are actually examined and accredited in Switzerland earlier than they’re taken aside, crated, and shipped. That alteration within the firm’s M.O. helped lower the set up time wanted at CO Constructing, just because the system didn’t should be checked and rechecked on-site.
Beforehand, “the usual was that they’d construct the components in accordance with the reduce drawings, put all of them in containers, they’d arrive on-site, we might put it collectively, after which we needed to undergo the startup and commissioning section,” Drafz recalled. “Right here, we save time as a result of the modules have been already put collectively as soon as in whole, checks have been run, verified, after which it was taken aside and put in containers in a means that we knew which field had what.
“It was one thing we determined to do with the system due to the problems we had solved,” he added. “We had discovered within the earlier fashions that it took a number of weeks to finalize set up. As for us, the shopper website is way more helpful than the location inside our manufacturing unit. We might somewhat spend the verification time within the manufacturing unit than on-site in entrance of the shopper. In in the present day’s day and age, the purchasers are time delicate. They spend some huge cash on an funding, they usually wish to get their return.”
The third change that helped get the brand new setup working so rapidly was the variety of devoted personnel who labored with CO Constructing’s individuals on-site to set and finalize the equipment as soon as it hit the store flooring. Bystronic’s set up workforce included two Italian technicians and two native Bystronic technicians—along with many CO Constructing workers pitching in to do no matter duties they may.
Having so many individuals on-site helped shave weeks off the time that usually would have been allotted for the challenge.
“I’d have to have a look at the Gantt chart to see precisely what we pulled it off in, however I wish to say it was like three-and-a-half weeks of a projected six weeks,” Holden stated. “I believe we kicked butt there. We equipped some assist to facilitate these guys, to assist them alongside their approach to the set up.
“[We were] simply attempting to be as environment friendly as we may,” he added. “We have now overhead cranes, we’ve forklifts. We have now keen our bodies right here to assist. We have been assertive. We did what we may do to assist them. Something they’d allow us to do, we did. And so they despatched crew out. They put in numerous additional hours to assist us out, so we undoubtedly admire that.”
Drafz famous that serving to prospects like CO Constructing is a two-way avenue for Bystronic.
“CO Constructing is an efficient associate,” Drafz stated. “We see a protracted partnership with them. They count on to develop within the close to future, and we wish to be a associate with them.”
