Published on: 25/07/2022
The metallurgy sector encompasses solutions for a variety of industries: companies which buy, cut and resell bars therefore have highly diversified needs.
Metallurgica Veneta, a company with over 30 years of experience in the metallurgy sector, offers qualified services which include the cutting to size of metal bars and tubes with diameters up to 1000 mm, offering 18 different types of steel.
In particular, the company processes seamless tubes, intended for the production of hydraulic cylinders and industrial machinery, and chrome plated tubes, also in special steels, for uses such as cylinder stems mounted on earth moving equipment. These are segments where quality requirements are stringent.
A common trend in the metal cutting sector is the search for automated solutions, in order to spare operators the considerable expenditure of time and energy involved in manually handling the materials to be processed.
Metallurgica Veneta, which has laid the foundations of its growth precisely on innovative capacity and product customisation, has long since adopted automated solutions for cutting to size which not only guarantee maximum cutting precision, but are also able to handle the loading and unloading of large cut pieces.
In automating the production process, the company was supported by ISTech, which has been supplying innovative metal cutting equipment for over 25 years. Metallurgica Veneta has already included several solutions designed and manufactured by ISTech in its machine park, including two plants with automated loading and unloading and three CNC sawing machines, Power 530NC, Power 440NC and Power 360NC.
These solutions have helped place Metallurgica Veneta among the most advanced companies in terms of cutting automation.
Following the excellent results achieved with these machines, Metallurgica Veneta decided to acquire two more metal cutting systems.
Reflecting on the properties which these plants should have, the company’s owners, Giuseppe and Francesco Buda, soon realised that the ideal solution was unlikely to be available off a catalogue, making it advisable to contact a company able to custom-build it: previous experience made it easy to identify ISTech as the ideal supplier.
Of the two systems ordered, one will be equipped with a magnetic unloader which will palletise the cut parts. The cutting capacity of this plant will be considerable, handling parts up to 820 mm in diameter.
After listening to and understanding the customer’s requirements, ISTech’s engineers designed a system perfectly tailored to the needs of production. The most important factor which had to be worked on was the loading capacity. This cutting centre will actually be able to handle the automatic loading of large diameter bars (up to 820 mm), even of different sizes, handling up to 30 tons of material.
The bars will be positioned at the cutting head, with an accuracy of 0.01 mm. Great attention is paid to material optimisation and savings.
The sawing machine is designed to exploit the full potential of carbide blades: increased blade motor power, special cycles to preserve the blade teeth, blade tensioning and hydraulic blade guide plates.
The plant will also be equipped with a system for collecting, filtering and recovering water and lubricant with an oil separator to keep the coolant clean.
The project also includes automated chip removal, with a high-capacity evacuation and draining system which allows the machine to be used continuously over three shifts.
The system will also be equipped with sensors to ensure the stability of the cutting process.
The design includes a blade deviation sensor to evaluate the quality of the cut during the process, avoiding non-standard cuts, correcting them and self-adjusting; if the deviation is impossible to correct without operator intervention, the sensor stops the cut, avoiding waste.
Other sensors, known as unloading cells, evaluate the cutting pressure and monitor the power absorption of the blade motor. If these parameters are exceeded, the machine is able to introduce corrective measures, signal the anomaly or, in the event of a deviation likely to damage the workpieces, interrupt the process.
Finally, laser sensors ensure the perfect positioning of the tube with respect to the cutting head, guaranteeing an impeccable end result.
The work of the plant does not stop at cutting, but proceeds with the automatic sorting of the cut pieces according to size or job order; the plant provides different possibilities of unloading, on a moving carpet, in boxes or directly on pallets.
Palletisation of the pieces will be possible thanks to a magnetic manipulator capable of lifting the cut pieces and placing them in order on pallets, ready for shipment. The manipulator will also be able to rotate the parts by 90°, so that they can be placed on their side or face down, depending on whether they are long or short parts.
A further new feature of this cutting system is the integration of a station for marking workpieces, which will be identified and marked before being placed on pallets.
In order to ensure trouble-free three-shift operation, ISTech has also envisaged the possibility of carrying out maintenance work remotely. It will thus be possible, in many cases, to carry out quick and decisive interventions without compromising productivity.
This is a necessary condition for Metallurgica Veneta, which invests heavily in timely and punctual delivery service. To this end, Giuseppe and Francesco Buda have equipped their company with a perfectly stocked warehouse which includes a vast range of common and special steels from qualified and certified Italian brands.
The efficiency and flexibility of the automatic cutting solutions designed and manufactured by ISTech will help Metallurgica Veneta guarantee the highest service standards, working with maximum automation and efficiency, according to the interconnection principles of Industry 4.0.
For over 25 years, ISTech has offered standard and customised solutions for every metal cutting requirement. Innovative design and flexibility in manufacturing allow ISTech to create tools which integrate perfectly into production cycles, offering high mechanical cutting capabilities and contributing to process automation.
Attention to corporate sustainability, in all its forms, and care for the environment, in the design of customer solutions as well as in production processes, are distinctive features of the company.
For more information on ISTech solutions you can contact the company by phone (+39 02 93548545) or email (info@istech-segatrici.com) or visit www.istech-segatrici.com