SigmaNEST Punches Job Shop into the Future

Manufacturers, still under pressure from relentless competition, are continuously seeking new ways to become more competitive by implementing systems that result in increasing productivity. The emphasis in this effort has been focused on reducing non-value-adding activities which plague all production shops. It is becoming common knowledge that around 90 percent of total manufacturing time is wasted on tasks that don’t contribute to adding to the product. Tasks the customer is unwilling to pay for. These include items classified as waste like long set-up times and unnecessary inventory. Many different techniques designed to eliminate these “waste” activities are currently being implemented at various manufacturers and job shops alike. Continuous improvement programs can go a long way in meeting the need for world-class productivity. However using the right equipment also addresses the need for reducing if not eliminating waste activities.

One of the daily challenges facing punch machine shops is being able to remove parts from the sheet skeleton after the punch process has been completed. Methods abound. Operators shake the sheet to dislodge parts or smaller parts get dropped through the drop-door while other parts get removed manually, disrupting the machine’s production. This presented itself as the major “bottleneck” at Metal’s Manufacturing’s production scheme and needed to be addressed if any improvements were to be made.

Metal’s Manufacturing is a job shop that specializes in manufacturing door frames as well as supplying other miscellaneous sheet metal parts for the local industry in Utah. Under pressure to meet “just in time” delivery, the production team realized they needed to find a solution to meet the part removal challenge. Adding more labor would only drive up costs even further. After extensive research of various OEM vendors, they decided that the Murata turret machine combined with the FG loader system would best be able to solve this challenge. Following a visit to a Californian based company using the same system, they were convinced. Not only is the turret able to efficiently produce sheet metal parts, the loader automatically loads new sheets, removes parts and places them in predetermined stacks on an off-load station.

The next challenge facing them was that the machine usually comes with factory software. Stan Tschagenny, owner of Metals Manufacturing, realized that if he was to invest in the best hardware, it made sense to match the machine capabilities with software which could save material through tight nesting, drive the machine productively by minimizing tool moves, be easy-to-program, and be able to manage work orders and sheet inventory. The FG loader also needed to be able to be programmed. In this regard, the Murata representative recommended he use SigmaNEST since it was the best system to cover all these needs in a single package.

SigmaNEST took on this new project and worked with Murata to develop software that could efficiently program the turret and automate the FG-series loader. The software controls the automatic removal of finished parts and their placement on a neatly sorted and stacked finished parts pallet. Working together, SigmaNEST and Murata provided a solution that Metals Manufacturing was looking for. The result was a breakthrough for them that accomplished:

1. Lights out parts production.
2. Micro-joint free parts for safer handling and faster subsequent processing.
3. Maximized uptime due to automated sheet loading and part unloading.
4. Maximum production speed.
5. Improved part quality.

The production process starts by creating parts in SigmaNEST for production on the Murata punch press. The software then assists the programmer with industry leading turret management functions – including “Auto Dynamic” nesting, which enables industry exclusive, fully automatic, simultaneous part tooling and nesting.

Once the program is initiated, a new sheet is automatically loaded by the loader. The part is completed and freed from the skeleton by a separation hit that allows the part to be removed by the FG Loader. The loader uses multi-pads for efficient pick-up of finished parts. The parts are then stacked per customer requirement. There are options for stacking:

• by nested layout
• by product group
• by next process

The beauty of the system is that the turret starts processing the next part while the previous part is being stacked. This overlap reduces downtime previously experienced by Metals Manufacturing. All of this takes places while the machine is completely unmanned allowing for hands free manufacturing.

Having the right piece of equipment is vital to a company’s success. Metals Manufacturing, in Salt Lake City, Utah, saw the opportunity to increase productivity with their latest purchase from Murata Machinery and SigmaNEST. The Murata Motorum 2048LT-T fully equipped with the FG-1250 Sorting Loader has proved to be a great success for the family owned company.

“This system has allowed us to walk away from the machine and work on other tasks. With this new system our operators no longer have to prepare parts for the press brake, thus getting more work completed with the same amount of people,” says Stan Tschagenny, owner of Metals Manufacturing.

When asked about the new machine, Rudy Tschagenny said, “We have found this machine to be very flexible and easy to use. The only problem is that we don’t have three more machines.”

Contact us for more information on how to improve your yields.