>
SAWING & CUTTING OFF
Accommodating
aluminium
Supplier of metals to the aerospace industry in the UK, Wilsons, has invested in three high speed, automatic
bandsawing machines from Kasto in the past five years. As Solutions discovers however, the latest acquisition is
setting new standards in reliability and speed when it comes to cutting aluminium.
F
ounded in 1947, Wilsons currently stocks over 10,000 apart from the speed aspect, was the clean cut that they achieve. On specification to allow the option of using carbide blades, yet the
tons of plate, sheet, bar, tube, pipe, fittings and flanges other machines we looked at, fine swarf was produced which, when stockholder chooses to use bimetal blades for all its cutting
totalling over 3,000 line items for JIT, Kanban, direct line mixed with coolant, resulted in a dirty cutting environment. The cut on requirements, except on titanium. The reason is that bimetal is nearly
feed and other forms of supply to customers. In addition the Kasto saws is cleaner, as it uses minimum volume coolant and as fast as carbide when cutting all other materials and results in
to dealing directly with primes such as Airbus and the chips are much thicker, more like those produced when milling." lower cost per cut, due to the higher consumable cost of bands with
Bombardier, the stockist also services the first, second and Other features of Kasto saws that Wilsons’ engineers appreciate tungsten carbide teeth.
third tier supply chains. are the integral control panel instead of a bolt on type, and the ease Maintaining efficient customer service in terms of quality and
The latest saw to be installed is a dedicated aluminium cutting of programming. Additionally, the company had always been delivery is essential in stockholding, especially in the aerospace and
machine – the KastoTec AM4. According to Wilsons’ director and impressed with the aftersales service, both over the telephone and F1 sectors. With its substantial investment in sawing machines over
general manager, James Digby, it is 10 times faster at cutting when engineers visit. the past five years and the confidence to buy the latest bandsaw in a
aluminium alloys than two early Kasto bandsaws installed in the The KastoTec AM4 aluminium machine was installed in difficult business climate, Wilsons believes that it is well positioned to
1980s, which are still in daily use. Huntingdon at the end of 2009 in response to increased order take advantage of the upturn when it comes.
Demand is not only for aluminium – which accounts for the majority levels for aluminium alloys, the result of a growing aerospace
of turnover – but also for other aerospace metals including nickel and market in the UK, despite the recession, and Wilsons having
titanium alloys, and more recently a range of ferrous materials. increased its market share.
> KASTO
Additional high technology companies that take advantage of the Mr Clay explains: “This machine is finely tuned to cutting
www.kasto.uk.com
stockist's service include most of the UK-based Formula 1 teams. aluminium and nothing else, and achieves extraordinarily fast cutting
Branching out
rates, three to four times higher than even the AC4. Downfeed on the
AM4 is up to 1.5m per minute, which is progressively slowed
By 2005, Wilsons had increased its supply of aluminium bar to the automatically by the control the closer the blade gets to the centre of
UK aerospace industry to the point where its market share had round material so that the chip load on the teeth remains constant.
reached nearly 40%. In the same year, it decided to branch out into "When cutting single pieces of flat bar or rafts, the blade goes
stocking aerospace steels. Additional sawing capacity was clearly straight through at a high, constant speed, finishing in less than an
needed and after a brief foray into circular sawing, the company hour what would take a day to cut on one of our older saws."
opted to purchase a 430mm capacity KastoTec AC4 bandsaw. A typical order placed on Wilsons is 10- to 20-off, but may be as high
Mr Digby comments: "We asked several different sawing machine as 500-off, while ones and twos are regularly processed on most days.
suppliers to cut a 203mm diameter bar of 2014 aluminium. The Kasto
machine proved to be by far the quickest. Thankfully the machine
Programming perfection
for Bandsaws and
was in stock, as our requirement was urgent at the time, and the saw With the machines being so fast and batch sizes often low, speedy
was operating in our warehouse within three days.” changeover is paramount to avoid loss of production. Mr Digby
Metal Cutting Machinery
Grant Clay, operations manager, adds: "Since that moment we advises that, on all of the Kasto machines, a new job can be
have never looked back – the reliability of the machine has been programmed in a matter of minutes, even if new data has to be
second to none and it has been running flat out, eight and a half entered at the control. If the program is already in memory,
hours a day, five days a week, ever since it was installed. To changeover is faster still.
maximise productivity, we program the maximum band speed and "Even when a new material type, size and cross section plus cut
infeed for every piece of material it cuts, yet I struggle to think of a piece length and quantity have to be keyed in, the program is always
single breakdown in five years. ready before another operator can load the material onto the input
“Even Kasto's engineers are surprised at how hard we are able to conveyor," he says. “In fact, it takes longer to complete the
work the machine, which is easily three times faster at cutting all paperwork for a job than it does to program it.
materials than the older bandsaws in our warehouse,” he continues. “The beauty of having automatic bandsaws as reliable as the
Clean cut
Kastos is that they can run without operator attendance from the Birkett Cutmaster offers a wide range of competitively priced
end of the day shift,” Mr Digby adds. “This is particularly useful for
metal sawing equipment for most user requirements -
from Abrasive Cutting-off Machines to sophisticated Fully
With the advent of steel supply at Huntingdon, the rigid, powerful AC4 us because we often run a ghost shift that extends right through
Automatic AMADA Bandsaws and Bandsaw Blades - providing
optimum cost per cut for small batch or high volume production.
was naturally deployed onto that work, which curtailed its availability the night.”
For more detailed information, please contact:
to cut aluminium. So the decision was taken to buy a second, slightly Mr Clay adopts the policy of backing off feeds and speeds by 30%
BIRKETT CUTMASTER LIMITED
larger capacity (530mm bar diameter) KastoTec bandsaw – an AC5. to 50% to guard against blade breakage. A calculation is made as to PO Box 30, Lower Ground Floor, Block F, Middleton Business Park,
This is similarly run at maximum speeds and feeds, predominantly how fast each machine needs to run so that the requisite number of
Cartwright Street, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. BD19 5LY.
Tel: 01274 870311 Fax: 01274 862754
on steel. Even when cutting case hardened varieties, high parts – for example 200-off pieces of 180mm diameter steel – are in
Website: www.birkett-cutmaster.co.uk e-mail: bryn.pritchard@carclo-plc.com
productivity rates are achieved. the basket before the next morning shift starts.
Mr Digby elaborates: "Our main reason for choosing the Kastos It is interesting that the KastoTec machines at Wilsons are of robust
Supported by a reliable and comprehensive Spares & After Sales Service
SAWS and so much more!
Whatever your sawing, drilling, profiling or related requirements, Kaltenbach have the perfect, cost-efficient solution
SAW • DRILL • PROFILE • PUNCH/SHEAR • SHOT BLAST • AUTO-PAINT • MATERIAL HANDLING • ADVICE & EXPERTISE
www.kaltenbach.co.uk/news tel: 01234 213201 email: sales@kaltenbach.co.uk
www.pesmag.co.uk
Production Engineering Solutions • March 2010 21
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