Axe & Status Signposts Route to Success for Fabrication Company

When Castle Donington fabrication business, Knoxford Fabrications required a new laser machine, the CNC sheet metal manufacturer of Point of Sale displays, signage, containers, structural steel and fabricated steel housings, the company made a visit to MACH 2018.

It was at MACH that the Derbyshire business decided to invest in a new Axe & Status Durma HD-F 3015 BH fiber laser machine. Taking up the story, Eric Swithenbank from Knoxford Fabrications says: “Our relationship with Axe & Status started in 2016. Initially, we needed a new pressbrake to enable us to do bigger signage work and that’s when we looked at the Axe & Status Durma AD-R 40220 machine. We were certainly impressed. This relationship has now seen us invest in the new Durma fiber laser. This was installed in the last couple of months. We needed something bigger and better to create more opportunities in the market. The laser we had previously was a CO2 laser that was a little slow, so we were looking for something to give us a lot more potential.”

The Durma brand is well known in the UK and its leading product lines such as the pressbrakes, guillotines, shears, bending, rolling and punching machines are industry leading technologies; however, the new fiber technology is a lesser known quantity. This didn’t put Knoxford Fabrications off the prospect of investing, as Mr Swithenbank continues: “We had a very good experience with the pressbrake and the customer service from Durma and Axe & Status has been fantastic. This made it an easy decision to make.”

With over 800 models installed worldwide and the previous experience of working with Milton Keynes based Axe & Status, it proved a relatively straight forward decision for Knoxford. As Mr Swithenbank says: “First and foremost, we were looking at the speed of the machine, as this would give us a competitive advantage over our rivals in the marketplace. The new machine is roughly four-times faster than our previous CO2 laser machine. Added to this, we needed new options on the laser and this is exactly what the new Durma has given us.”

This speed is credit to a precision rack and pinion system that retains an accuracy of +/-0.05mm and a repeatability of +/-0.03mm whilst reaching incredible speeds of 90m/min in the X-axis and 100m/min in the Y-axis with a 12m/s2 rate of acceleration.

Despite the improved productivity, the new installation has lower consumption costs than its predecessor. “It uses a lot less power and it is using more nitrogen than CO2, so it is a lot more economical.” The benefits of fiber laser machines include a high beam quality that delivers fast and accurate cuts with no serviceable parts such as filters, pumps, mirrors or tubes; and with no mechanical resonator, this considerably reduces the cost of ownership.

Referring to the options the company specified, Mr Swithenbank says: “We only came across the laser because we were at the MACH exhibition. Looking at this machine, it has the 6-axis bevel head and the tube and box section cutting profile and these features made it more attractive to go for. With regard to supporting customers on the sheet metal front, we have the bevel option that allows us to cut a bevel into the profile and this is ideal for customers that either request a bevel or if it is just for secondary welding operations. In terms of the tube and box-section work, I’m really not sure where the next laser is that offers this capability. So, we certainly have a one-off machine in our local area, as we can do tube from 30mm up to 400mm diameter whilst the box section can be processed up to 250mm with the machine having the capability to cut up to about 3m.”

The working envelope of the new Durma HD-F 3015 BH is 3m by 1.5m by 150mm in the X, Y and Z axes whilst larger variants beyond 6m are also available from Axe & Status.

The Midlands Company processes a host of material types on its new Durma fiber laser, cutting mild steel up to 20mm thick and aluminium beyond 12mm with stainless, copper and brass also being regularly processed on the new machine. This facility to cut a multitude of materials gives Knoxford another capability it didn’t have previously. However, Axe & Status can supply the new fiber laser machines with the option of a 1-10kW laser system for a vast range of applications.

The Durma HD-F 3015 BH machine operates with a Siemens Sinumerik CNC control, IPG Power Source and a Precitec laser head and Lantek software; this combination guarantees performance, reliability and familiarity for any manufacturer. “All this gives us ease of use too. On the touch-screen display, we have everything in front of us and it’s really user friendly. From upstairs in the office, we can tell the machine what materials it is going to cut and we can change the material downstairs on the display too.” With regards to the training and support, Mr Swithenbank concludes: “At the time of training, my Operations Manager wasn’t available, so Axe & Status took him out to Turkey for some additional one to one training. That is the level of service we have received.”