FEATURE ON SAWING

Kasto technology cuts lead timesat stockholder

Bieber + Marburg, a steel and non-ferrous metals stockholder in Germany, is using a new sawing centre from Kasto for close-tolerance cutting to length of its various bar, tube, profile and other products. As a result, the company is seeing reduced lead times from order to delivery and can respond more flexibly to customer requests.

At Bieber + Marburg, the demand for sawing in particular is increasing enormously, so the company needed to examine how best to expand this side of its business and determine what technology to target. The conclusion was to purchase a new sawing centre from Kasto.

During a demonstration, the impressive speed of an automatic production circular saw from the KASTOvariospeed range impressed the stockholder’s management and it quickly became apparent that it would be the optimum solution to the shortfall in cutting capacity.
Adjacent to the circular saw, a KASTOsort robot is responsible for cut piece container management. The robot recognises the containers, which already contain the relevant delivery label, and loads the required parts into them automatically, even unattended over the weekend.

The new KASTOcenter varioplus 4 warehouse is 50 m long by 7 m wide and 9m high. It contains about 1500 shelves with space for material up to 7 m long and 330 mm in diameter. A gantry crane stores and retrieves stock at up to 60 m/min.

Marcel Finkernagel, director of administration and organisation at Bieber + Marburg, says: “The KASTOcenter varioplus 4 has enabled us to reduce set-up time from 15 to 20 minutes on the bandsaws, to less than two minutes on the circular saw. Operation is then automatic, with consistent quality of cut on material up to the saw’s maximum capacity of 330 mm diameter.”
For further information www.kasto.com

Behringer concludes ‘Steeldays’ in-house show

At the ninth edition of Behringer’s three-day ‘Steeldays’ in-house exhibition, the company welcomed more than 700 guests from 25 nations.Among the highlights was a new machine control, BehrCtrl10. In co-operation with Siemens, Behringer now has a uniform control concept for band and circular saw machines. The development phase focused on ease of use. Here, the newauto-feed control with its extensive material and tool database, means sawing machine automatically sets the appropriate technology parameters.

In the area of aluminium, Behringer presented a fully automated sawing and processing solution for handling continuous cast aluminium with an initial length of 7 m. At Steeldays, the ingots were cut to lengths of 1 m, with the first cuts disposed of and transported to an automatic lathe via a transfer line. A gripper then transported the peeled bars into an ultrasonic tank and then set them down on pallets.

Automatic aluminium circular saws from Behringer Eisele enable saw cuts every second. The VA-L 560 NC3 XL, for instance, can cut diameters of up to 240 mm at high speed while still conserving resourcesas the remnant length is just 50 mm. Connected to the automatic aluminium circular saw, technology partner JTA Connection demonstrated a driverless transport system with a robot cell. The AGV picked up the box with cut aluminium pieces from the automatic circular saw and transported them to the cell, where the robot removed the sections individually from the AGV.

Also creating a good impression on visitors was a large band saw in gantry design with two saw heads. The enormous dimensions of 4.4 m in height, a width of 8 m and the 24 m long material table was a sight to behold.
For further information www.behringer.net

Prosaw celebrates 60 years of business

The debut Beatles album, the first TV appearance of Doctor Who, and the commencement of operations at the Dartford Tunnel. Those were just a few of the headlines back in 1963. However, in the small Northamptonshire boot and shoe town of Kettering, a different headline was taking shape, that of a new company starting up business in the town. The German manufacturer Trennjaeger had decided to set up a UK office and chose Kettering because of its central location.

Employing just a handful of staff, Trennjaeger began to create a reputation as a supplier of high-quality sawing machines. At first, its range consisted of friction saws, and then came along the LKH and PMC large circular saws for the construction industry.

As time moved on, by the late 60s Trennjaeger handed over operations, and ultimately the business to its then management, who in due course changed the trading name to Prosaw Ltd. As the business grew, so did the need for new premises and in the early 70s the company moved to a new purpose-built factory on the then new Industrial Estate of Telford Way, from where the company continues to operate to this day.

By the mid-80s Prosaw was once again growing with the addition of further manufacturing space and a dedicated 5000 sqft showroom.Over time, the increased number of machines being supplied meant the number of engineers to install and carry out servicing also needed to increase from just a couple to a team of more than 10, based across the UK, today.

Many of the machines supplied by Prosaw in 2023 are from long-established relationships with both manufacturers and customers in the UK and around the world. Indeed, today’s range includes manufacturers in more than 10 countries.
For further information www.prosaw.co.uk

Ball valve specialist installs IMET bandsaw

Dafram SPA, a specialist in the production of ball valves for the oil industry, chose the IMET XT4 automatic bandsaw to help boost its workflow and production requirements. IMET says it was extremely happy to provide a reliable and efficient working tool to such an important partner in a market (valve construction) where precision is crucial. IMET machines are available in the UK from Addison Saws.

XT series automatic double-column bandsaws offer full material cuts up to 560mm. All the machines of the XT series are equipped with an integrated feeder and 10” touchscreen display that includes automatic cutting parameters and a materials library, allowing users to start a cutting cycle in just few minutes.

Regarding the XT4 model, clamping vices move at the same time to ensure optimum clamping of the material. Furthermore, bars which are not completely straight can advance through the system without issue.All vice pressures are adjustable, while the system also allows the vices to ‘back off’, thus avoiding the blade rubbing on the cut surface during the ascent of the saw frame for the next cut.

TCT bandsaw blades are suitable for this machine and it features hydraulically pressured TCT blade guides for maximum precision and squareness of cut. A further feature are adjustable lateral roller bearings that take the blade twist load prior to entry into the guides. The moving guides position automatically close to the cutting area, again for maximum precision. As a point of note, the machine software controls a hydraulic cylinder to tension the sawblade accordingly, while an automatic trim cut option is also available.

Finally, if the material has an acceptable pre-sawn face, it will locate accurately and automatically relative to the blade ‘zero’ position.
For further information www.addisonsaws.co.uk

Family succession at Behringer

Last month, Rolf Behringer (68) handed over his executive duties at saw manufacturer Behringer GmbH to his son Andreas Behringer (31), who will subsequently manage the company as second managing director together with Christian Behringer (54).

Following 44 years of commitment to the family business, Rolf took over the management from his father Willy Behringer in 1988. He was mainly responsible for the company’s purchasing and commercial operations. During this time, the business also made the transition from a workshop to a steadily growing and internationally active industrial company. Since 2000, he managed the company together with his cousin Christian, who is responsible for technology, sales and marketing. Rolf will continue to be available as a shareholder in an advisory role.

Andreas is the fourth generation to join the management team. After graduating from high school and spending a year abroad, he studied international management in Mannheim until 2015. Andreas started his professional career as a project manager at a service and consulting company near Frankfurt. Over a period of four years, he gained insights into a wide variety of industries and corporations across Germany. In 2020, he joined the family business. Over the coming years, Andreas will focus primarily on HR and sustainability issues in the company.

“My goal is to lead our company into a successful and, at the same time, sustainable future,” he says. “By focusing on people and necessary investments, we can ensure that our family business will continue to prosper for many years to come, offering attractive activities and jobs for future generations.”
For further information www.behringer.net