Tewkesbury-based
Emsea, one of the UK’s leading laser cutting, metal fabrication, machining and sheet metal forming specialists, has enhanced its productivity and efficiency by choosing
Lantek Bend software for its Trumpf TrueBend 5000 series machine.
Lantek Bend’s multi-vendor capability provides Emsea with great flexibility as it can interface seamlessly with bending machines from various manufacturers. This includes providing a standardised process for programming and optimisation. This means Emsea can maintain consistency in production and cost estimation, regardless of the machine in use.
The Lantek Bend system monitors the spring back of the material and works out the overbend required to get the angle exactly right. In addition, the machine can detect if the operator has inserted the part the wrong way round, maximising quality and reducing the chance of error.
One of Emsea’s sales engineers said: “Thanks to Lantek’s advanced technology we can optimise the productivity of our machines, which means cutting set-up times and avoiding errors, which gives us a major cost and efficiency saving. The way that the Lantek software products integrate with one another, sharing and optimising data helps us to operate as efficiently as possible while providing the best customer service.”
He added: “As well as integrating the software to programme the Trumpf TrueBend machine, we also use it for other bending machines, providing a tooling and setting list and a bending sequence to the operators. This saves them time and also ensures we are quoting the right costs for processes on these machines.”
As Emsea manufactures parts for a wide range of different industries including agriculture, oil and gas, water, food, medical and packaging, the materials and variety of components is continually changing, making automation of processes extremely important to the company. Previously all Emsea’s bending sequences and tooling was worked out on the shopfloor, with operators using different tools and methods. This meant that there was a high risk of human error and wasted materials.
With Lantek Bend, Emsea benefits from having one floating licence for the software, which is part of the quotation and programming process for the laser and waterjet machines. As a result of integrating Lantek Bend within its machine, Emsea has reduced press brake set-up times by 50%, while eliminating the risk of human error.
Flexible processThe sales engineer continued: “The major benefit with Lantek Bend is the reduction in machine set-up times which are at least 50% faster which is reflected in even better value we can offer to our customers. With Lantek Bend we have a flexible process as the blank sizes automatically feed into Lantek Expert for nesting and cutting. With other software systems when unfolding to give the blank sizes, you lose the ability to change material, tooling sizes or bend radii on the fly. Not only is Lantek Bend more flexible, easily coping with manufacturing changes, but the material pricing is more accurate too.”
He added: “Lantek Bend is really simple and straightforward to use as we import the customer’s 3-D CAD models and the software breaks them down into the individual components, unfolds each part and works out the most efficient way of bending each part with the minimum number of tool set-ups.” The TSO batch job capability of Lantek Bend is a significant benefit for EMSEA. This makes it possible to batch together a large number of different parts.
The TrueBend machine features some powerful technology including ACB Wireless and ACB Laser. Lantek’s software analyses all the bends required, works out the bending sequence for each part and provides a list of tooling to cover all the different parts, minimising the number of tools required for the whole batch. This significantly reduces the overall setup times while at the same time providing the most efficient bending sequence.
Emsea has been a customer of Lantek since 2004, which includes utilising Lantek Expert for programming its laser and waterjet machines. The company also uses Lantek Integra to manage its production and generate quotations every day.