Whether in the food industry, construction, transportation or high-tech swimming pools, metal parts for them often come from the British town of Eye from sheet metal fabricator Wrightform Ltd.
„After we had all the information about the FlatMaster®, we very quickly decided on it.“
– Ken Rose, Managing Director at Wrightform Ltd.
Most recently, the company has faced new challenges. For example, experienced employees are hard to find. In addition, the quality of the starting material was declining. As soon as employees started cutting parts from the sheets, their residual stresses loosened, often resulting in a deformed end product. As a result, many parts had to be levelled by hand, which was expensive and time-consuming.
At the same time, customers are increasingly seeing the benefits of part sizing for downstream processing. As a supplier, Wrightform realized that an automated and consistent process could help. Then, during a visit to TRUMPF, General Manager Ken Rose saw the right straightening machine. "Once we had all the information about the FlatMaster®, we very quickly decided to go with it," he says.
With the FlatMaster® , parts are perfectly flat in seconds and almost completely free of residual stresses. Subsequent steps such as welding, bending or forming become faster and more process reliable. And unlike the manual process, Wrightform can now straighten 10 or 15 parts in one pass and still meet flatness specifications.
Since installing the FlatMaster®, Wrightform has also benefited from time savings and planning reliability. In addition, the machine operates so efficiently that it often only needs to run a few hours per day, yet still processes several tons per week. This also enables the sheet metal specialist to compensate for any shortage of skilled workers.
Word has already spread about the consistently good quality: New customers are approaching Wrightform and asking about ARKU technology.