Integrated Metal Products
After 29 years of steady growth, Integrated Metal Products (IMP), one of Canada’s premier fabricators, required more space to keep up. The company moved into a 30,000-square foot manufacturing facility to ramp up production.
Booming Business Requires Better Tools
Soon after the move, all four of IMP’s lasers were kept busy, necessitating more press brake operations to form and shape parts. Press brake operations with long setup times were slowing operations further down in the production process. The downstream pressures of welding, finishing, assembly and packing were affecting just-in-time operations.
IMP needed a more than additional square feet to support booming business—they needed high quality tools and efficient production. Brian Heins, the general manager for IMP reflected, “We put a lot of planning into this expansion. We asked ourselves and our equipment suppliers: what new equipment do we need to operate at the highest level?” An integral part of the answer to that question was Mate tooling.
Mate Sales Engineer Offers a Better Way
IMP’s three new Amada press brakes were equipped with European style tooling. While IMP achieved some production efficiencies from the new equipment, Peter Visser, Mate’s sales engineer for IMP, encouraged them to test Mate Wila Trumpf style tooling in one of the new press brakes to improve bending performance. The test was successful.
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Better Bending, 30% Boost in Productivity
Mate’s press brake tooling, made with a deep induction hardening process, resists the wear caused by laser cut parts with dross edges, giving IMP cleaner bends for better looking products. Mate tooling also saved a minimum of 20 minutes per setup for positioning and clamping. “The Mate tooling just pops in quickly and clamps shut accurately in the press brake’s hydraulic clamping system and then you’re ready to bend,” said Hein. Operators really liked the new Mate tooling. Soon all three press brakes were using Mate’s Wila Trumpf style tooling.
Now, after more than a year in operation, the introduction of fully integrated and precise fabricating operations at IMP has resulted in a 30% boost in productivity. IMP credits the new Mate tools as key to their much-improved productivity.
The original article was published in Shop Metal Working Technology
