Tamworth, UK – The cost of manufacturing sheet metal components for office furniture has been significantly reduced at the Blackburn factory of Plan-It Welding, following the installation in November 2013 of a Finn-Power E5 turret punch press from Press & Shear Machinery.

The savings result from reduced power consumption and the greater capabilities of the new machine compared with the one it replaced – a 1988 model from the same manufacturer.


Commented senior supervisor, Andrew Mitchell, “We were on our power limit when we operated the old Finn-Power TP300 hydraulic punch press, whereas with the all-electric E5 we have been able to install an additional drilling and cutting cell in our aluminium section and still draw less kVA overall.”

The economy is a consequence of Finn-Power’s regenerative braking system, which uses capacitors to store energy from deceleration of the machine axes, redirecting it to power other machine functions rather than wasting it. Purchase and disposal of hydraulic oil and filters are also avoided.

Lower energy bills are the icing on the cake, according to Mr Mitchell. The main benefit is being able to manufacture components more efficiently than on the old press, if indeed they could previously be made at all. He cited one example involving the manufacture of a star base for an office swivel chair.

To create a 6 mm collar to accept the castors, 3 mm gauge, mild steel sheet is pierced and tapped on the E5. The TP300 could not cope with this, so it was necessary to crop solid bar, then drill and tap the sections before welding them into position on the base. By redesigning just this one element of the chair to take advantage of the greater versatility of the more modern punch press, production cost has been dramatically lowered.

Plan-It Welding’s management took a far-sighted decision four years ago to relocate from Accrington to a new, 74,000 sq ft unit in Blackburn, despite fierce and increasing competition from low-wage countries which were flooding the UK market with budget office furniture. By carrying comprehensive stocks for quick delivery and maintaining quality while at the same time reducing its prices, Plan-It Welding has succeeded in fighting back and has doubled turnover since the move.

Key to holding down production costs in this highly price-sensitive sector has been investment in modern manufacturing plant such as the Finn-Power E5 with Press & Shear’s Jetcam nesting software, the aluminium drilling / cutting cell, and also a new powder coating plant. Economic small-batch production on CNC equipment is made all the more necessary at the Blackburn factory, as every piece of furniture is made to customer order.

Continued Mr Mitchell, “The latest punch press is twice as fast as its predecessor and handles 2.5 by 1.25 metre sheets – four times the area that the TP300 could take.

“Currently, therefore, the E5 needs to be operated for only 36 hours a week to meet production demand, so there is plenty of spare capacity as the business grows.

“Moreover, the machine’s ability to perform different machining tasks on components in one set-up has reduced the number of separate operations needed across our range of components, which also helps to keep costs down.”

He went on to explain that the E5 not only punches, nibbles and cuts straight sections with successive strokes of an 80 mm long tool, but can also upform features such as dimples and slots during the programmed cycle using special tools in the turret. Two multi-tools expand the machine’s versatility, one providing 10 small tools of dis-similar size in an indexable station. The other deploys 25 identical 5 mm diameter punches set at 10 mm centres in an orthogonal pattern to create large perforated areas for decorative effect.

To include other cosmetic features and, if required, provide strengthening to areas of the sheet, Plan-It Welding is currently trialling the Wilson Wheel and the Mate Rollerball, which generate ribs in the sheet by interpolating the X and Z axes with the ram at bottom dead centre.

To date, over a thousand different components have been programmed and produced on the E5, either from drawings supplied by the customer or, more and more, from CAD files. DXF and DWG files are read directly by the local PC on the shop floor, while all other formats are translated in the office using IGES before being downloaded.

As to selection of the Finn-Power machine, Plan-It Welding deemed the E5 to be on a par or ahead of competitors’ machines in terms of productivity and energy economy, and Press & Shear’s good service back-up over nearly 20 years gave the customer no reason to change supplier.

SOURCE: Press & Shear Machinery Ltd