Page 24 - MetalForming-Aug-2018-issue

Achtung!
Custom-Built Cut-to-Length Line
Line achieves narrow tolerances, evenness and surface quality for light- metal parts producer Martinrea Honsel GmbH.
As a supplier of light-metal parts, primarily for the auto industry and known for their consistent evenness, narrow tolerances and high surface quality, Martinrea Honsel GmbH (MH), with facilities in Ger- many, Spain, Brazil and Mexico, and headquarters in Meschede, Germany, relies heavily on its equipment suppli- ers. One such supplier is Burghardt + Schmidt GmbH (B+S), whom MH com- missioned late last year to provide a customized cut-to-length line to satisfy its quality requirements. (For more on Martinrea Honsel and Burghardt + Schmidt, see sidebar.)
B+S did just that. The new line, with a Schnutz GmbH (a B+S subsidiary)
Meets Stringent Specs
22 MetalForming/August 2018
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high-capacity leveler, guarantees level- ing quality according to German, Euro- pean and international standards, and meets MH requirements. Moreover, according to B+S officials, the new sys- tem ensures 97-percent availability.
Thomas Rünker, project manager
at MH Germany, says that the increased maintenance requirements of the pre- vious system made it difficult to keep up with parts demand. “The range of products manufactured at our plant,” he says, “extends from coils and sheets to stamped blanks for trim parts in the automotive industry or sheet-formed parts to decorate automobile interiors, to name just a few.” Rünker says it had become necessary to maintain the old system frequently, making it impossible to guarantee system availability.
“We already had collaborated with B+S on several projects that demon- strated their technical competency,” says
Schnutz fitted quick-change leveling cassettes to quicken inspection and replacement of the cassettes in the new line’s leveler. This shortened downtime and helped ensure improved machine availability.
A new Burghardt + Schmidt cut-to-length line at Martinrea Honsel has a working width of 300 to 1250 mm, a cut length of 300 to 3500 mm, and handles strip thickness from 0.3 to 2.2 mm, with a maximum stacking height of 750 mm. The line satisfies toler- ances for aluminum and aluminum alloy strips, sheets and plates defined in European standard DIN EN 485.