"We see ourselves as a pioneer in the field of contract manufacturing of sheet metal products and metal structures in the Netherlands," says Antijn Koers, Operations Director at Suplacon, describing the company that was founded by his family in Emmeloord over 45 years ago. The range of services includes the entire spectrum of metalworking processes. In addition to laser cutting, punching, edging, bending, welding and various surface treatment processes, Suplacon specializes in CNC milling with the highest precision. Suplacon supplies more than 400 customers in the mechanical engineering, automotive and electronics industries, among others, with components primarily made of stainless steel and thin sheet metal. "We currently have more than 1,000 products, some of them very different, that we design and manufacture for our customers," says Koers, describing the range.
With Plaatwerk 365, Suplacon offers an end-to-end automated ordering process, and has done so since 2015. Customers upload their drawing in the online ordering platform and define quantity, material selection, delivery time and other parameters. The software takes care of the quotation calculation immediately. This can be done 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. By pressing a button, the order is confirmed. "Well-organized processes are very important for us. This starts with the order and is also reflected in the material flow in the plant. We always know where each production order is at any given time," says Koers.
Remmert Automation supplies two Trumpf lasers
In the course of growth and the associated increase in capacity, Suplacon modernized its machinery in 2020 to include two new 10 kW fiber laser cutting machines from Trumpf. In order to achieve the maximum possible output from the machines, Suplacon aimed to optimize the flow of materials around the laser cutting processes. The use of automated processes was also intended to counteract the prevailing shortage of skilled workers. "We opted for the LaserFLEX automation from Remmert. On the one hand, it allowed us to connect both Trumpf lasers very compactly to an automation line with a storage tower. On the other hand, the solution is very flexible in terms of changes or expansions. Another decisive factor for us was the automated handling of residual sheets, as we do not always process 100% of the sheets in every cutting plan. This gives us a high degree of flexibility in production orders. At the same time, we are spared the additional personnel effort that used to be required for the handling of residual sheets," says Antjin Koers, explaining the decision.
At its core, the automation and storage solution from Remmert consists of the LaserFLEX automation system and a double storage tower for storing the raw and residual sheets. The laser automation works with two independently movable manipulators. A suction unit places new sheets on the changeover tables or feeds residual sheets back into storage. An rake unit picks up the cut sheet parts and residual grids from the shuttle tables.
The cut metal sheets are sorted by hand immediately after laser cutting. For ergonomic support, Suplacon had Remmert integrate two belt conveyors into the automation line. Here, the sheets are placed on one of the conveyor belts by the rake unit. To protect the material from scratches, the fingers of the rakes are equipped with belt drives. The conveyor belt conveys the metal sheets piece by piece through the protective fence to the sorting position; this saves long walking distances and also provides an ideal working height. Two metal sheets each in front of and behind the protective fence can be accommodated on the two conveyor belts. Additional metal sheets can be stacked on a further sorting table, e.g. during night shifts with little personnel.
Increase productivity by 40%
Antijn Koers is very satisfied with the laser cutting center consisting of Trumpf lasers plus Remmert automation and bearings. "The lasers can work effectively in both day shifts without long downtimes and in a low-staff night shift if needed. Compared to before, productivity is about 40% higher with automation." The return of residual sheet metal to the warehouse now also takes place fully automatically. Remmert's WMS is linked to WiCAM's CAM software and ERP so that both raw sheets and remnant sheets can be nested and transferred to the lasers as automated work orders. This allows Suplacon a high degree of flexibility in laser cutting: Work orders can be processed on demand and in a timely manner, even for small and medium quantities, which has proven particularly useful for orders placed via Suplacon's Plaatwerk 365 ordering platform.
