Founded in 1928 in Bradford and currently employing about 540 people, the company formerly known as George Barker remains a major employer in the city; the business was bought by the Epta Group in 1999 and was rebranded this year as Epta UK. It continues to produce custom-made refrigeration units.

The company’s impressive production facility was renovated and expanded in 2007; it now covers 19,500m². Ever increasing levels of demand for its products recently prompted it to search for a highly efficient automated system that would produce fabricated parts of the required quality.

After brief consideration of a couple of other systems, a demonstration of the Night Train FMS (flexible manufacturing system) from Coventry-based Prima Power UK Ltd (www.primapower.com) proved that this could satisfy Epta UK’s requirements, being able to undertake high-speed laser cutting, punching and forming — and to store raw material, processed material and parts.

Simon Hayes, a methods and technology engineer at Epta UK, said: “After deciding that the Prima Power system would deliver the needed boost to production, our meetings and close co-operation with Prima Power’s staff resulted in the development of what is the ideal FMS for both our current and foreseeable needs.

“Since being installed, the Night Train FMS has integrated an entire fabrication process into a single all-embracing manufacturing cell that provides automatic material handling and ‘intelligent’ buffering.

“Automatic information flow from programming to production reporting is also a major benefit; and with unmanned ‘lights out’ capabilities, we have minimised part-manufacturing times and maximised the available production time.

“The Night Train FMS takes up much less floor space than the manufacturing and storage elements would if purchased and operated as separate units.

Also, the system ensures less work-in-progress at any given time, resulting in a reduced requirement for storage.

“While the Night Train FMS takes care of all logistic operations — including the movement of sheet metal and the manufactured components, as well as all storage needs — the core of the system is the Prima Power LPe8f Combi, which combines laser cutting, punching and forming in the one flexible package.

“We use the LPe8f’s turret punch press when it is easier or faster, and the laser when we need flexibility. Depending on the task at hand, we can always choose the most productive manufacturing method.

We now benefit from practically zero time for set-up change, while the system’s high level of flexibility means that we now have much shorter lead times for the introduction of new products and for product changes.”

Non-stop production

The Night Train FMS automates the entire material and information systems, combining all the manufacturing stages into a single cohesive and flexible process.

Moreover, all systems are tailored to suit each customer’s specific needs and designed to incorporate the most appropriate elements from Prima Power’s comprehensive range of machines and equipment.

The company says that levels of production efficiency approaching those of serial production can be reached in small-batch fabrication situations; at the same time, the technology is equally suited to efficient serial production.

Prima Power says a well-designed Night Train FMS can act as a dedicated manufacturing line for a single product, but it can be converted in just minutes to manufacture a totally different product.

Being modular, the FMS concept offered by Prima Power allows the system to be built according to plant-specific requirements, but the installed systems need not remain static; they can evolve and be adapted to changing requirements.

Cells, individual machines and work-stations can be upgraded, changed or added; and if required, storage capacities can be further expanded.

Prima Power’s Lpe8f combines advanced servo-electric punching and forming with fibre laser cutting and profiling, along with a large tooling capacity. It accommodates sheet sizes up to 4,300 x 1,565mm and has a maximum working area (without repositioning) of 3,074 x 1,565mm.

The machine is available with fibre laser sources of 2, 3 or 4kW; and in addition to various steels, it can cut copper and brass.

Punching speeds up to 1,000 strokes/min can be achieved when using a 1mm pitch, and punching forces of 200 or 300kN can be specified; tool rotation at speeds up to 250rev/min is provided.

In conclusion, Mr Hayes said: “Our purchase of the Night Train FMS further reduces our manufacturing environmental impact.

“Its use of technologies such as servo-electric punching and fibre laser cutting means that it has very low energy consumption requirements, while not using hydraulic oil removes the need to dispose of hazardous waste.

“The system also has low heat and noise emissions, which is better for our operators — and for the environment.”