Dringenberg is one of the fastest growing companies in the field of sheet metal processing and today is one of the largest producers of factory and vehicle equipment in Germany. The basis for this, among other things, is an intelligent production strategy that combines the highest quality with maximum flexibility. To this end, a few months ago, the company invested in a punching-bending combination system from Prima Power.
Dringenberg is the competence center for intelligent workshop and vehicle equipment in the Würth Group. The product portfolio ranges from workbenches and cabinets to shelving and mobile workshop equipment. Dringenberg focuses strongly on customized individual solutions. This poses major challenges for production, particularly in the area of in-vehicle equipment. Given the large number of vehicle types and the special requirements of the various trade groups, the heights, widths and depths of the cabinets as well as the individual drawers and sliding compartments vary almost infinitely.
“Using a special configurator, each customer can put together their own special furnishings. This makes preproduction in large quantities almost impossible for the assembly warehouse. Nevertheless, maximum speed is required, because the assembly department usually needs the individual parts and assemblies only one day in advance,” explains Heiko Stahl, production manager at Dringenberg. For weight reasons, mainly aluminum with a thickness between 0.8 mm and 2.0 mm is processed.
Because appearance plays a major role, the individual parts, some of which are anodized, must not show any scratches or streaks. Therefore, the material is typically supplied with a film, which is removed manually after processing.
Until a few months ago, the material was punched by an operator on a punching machine and then placed on a pallet. This was then transported to the bending machine by a stacker. The operator there placed the punched sheets into the bending machine and brought them into the desired shape. Finally, the film was removed and the part was prepared for assembly. The team led by Stahl wanted to improve this process and looked for suitable solutions. In the search, they quickly came across Prima Power.
The best result
Prima Power supplies laser and sheet metal working machines, including 2-D and 3-D laser machines, punching and combined punching-laser and punching-shearing machines, press brakes, panel benders and flexible manufacturing systems. A particular strength of the company is to support customers with solutions for the efficient automation of their production.
As Dringenberg had already gained good experience in working with Prima Power at another plant, a suitable solution was sought together. The goal was to minimize labor, maximize throughput and, at the same time, increase accuracy and surface quality.
The answer was a servo-electric PSBB (Punching, Shearing, Buffering, Bending) line that fully automatically processes raw sheets into finished bent parts ready for installation.
“The positive experience we had already gained with Prima Power was confirmed again with this project,“ Stahl declares. “The cooperation and support from Prima Power were great.”
The starting point is the tower storage system with 20 pallet positions that enables the processing of a range of materials that can be automatically changed under program control. Rene Polz, group leader for this line, always keeps a place free for quick turnarounds so that even sheets that are not in common use can be fed into the system without interruption.
The sheets are transferred to a Shear Genius punching-shearing cell. This cell is equipped with a turret with 16 tool stations. All tools for series production can be accommodated in it, so that no setup is necessary for series parts. Further advantages are the integrated trim strip destroyer and the possibility of parameterization in the control system. Parts that differ only in their dimensions but are otherwise identical can be created by changing a few parameters and do not have to be programmed at great expense. Ease of use and efficiency are the outstanding features of the entire line.
After shearing, the material is forwarded for buffering and subsequent bending in an automatic bending cell. This task is performed by a robot, which offers a high degree of flexibility and enables the automatic stacking of larger parts. The material flow can be designed to compensate for the different time requirements of punching and bending. The sheet is transferred directly to the bending machine, temporarily stored or fed in from the intermediate storage area.
The integrated bending machine is specially designed for maximum productivity, quality and repeatability. This goes so far that tests are currently being carried out to process sheets without the protective film. This would eliminate another very time-consuming work step.
The line advantage
“We went from a manual operation to a fully automated process with this solution,” Stahl says. “We were aware that not everything would work right off the bat, but the cooperation and support from Prima Power was excellent. Because the punching-shearing and panel bending machines are fully automated and integrated in one line, we no longer need any additional material handling. The workpiece is not touched until we finish unloading it and stacking it on a pallet. This is the only operator intervention required in the entire line.”
In this way, Dringenberg is also addressing the shortage of skilled workers. Only one operator is needed for the entire line, which, if everything runs smoothly, produces up to 400 parts per shift. The line is currently running in two-shift operation, but can still be operated completely unmanned afterward. This has dramatically increased Dringenberg‘s production capacity and enabled the company to reduce its minimum stock levels in the warehouse. It is now much more flexible and faster.
“Prima Power’s system has increased our flexibility and productivity many times over,” Stahl concludes. Based on this positive experience, Dringenberg will continue its further growth course together with Prima Power.
