Perfectly prepared for more sheet metal

Schröder folding machine MAK 4 Evolution UD in operating at Scheuch

Customer

Scheuch is the market and competence leader in the field of industrial air and environmental technology. International customers rely on Scheuch technologies in the field of exhaust and flue gas cleaning and the many years of experience of Scheuch specialists. Large-scale restructuring and automation of production required a modernization of sheet metal processing. Thanks to a machine from the Schröder Group, it has been possible to successfully prevent sheet metal bending from causing bottlenecks in the process.
(www.scheuch-industrial-solutions.com)

Success

One-man operation, Z-edges and stainless steel

“We had already taken a first look at the Schröder Group‘s machines a few years ago at the Euroblech trade fair. As part of the reorganization of our production, we contacted Schröder with a specification sheet and the data of all parts to be bent,” recalls Roman Škorvánek, Team Leader Facility Management/Automation at Scheuch s.r.o. The search for a suitable folding machine had a clear result: The MAK4 Evolution UD from Schröder fulfilled all requirements. Only this machine is capable of folding 4 and 5 mm thick steel sheets over a working length of 4000 mm with extreme precision in the range of tenths of a millimeter. The need to occasionally manufacture systems from uncoated stainless steel sheets also spoke in favor of the surface-friendly folding technology. Another decisive factor for the technical renewal was that the new filter designs also included components with Z-edges. For this reason, the machine‘s bidirectional folding beam (UD = Up and Down) was a much-needed option. This innovation enables a single employee to produce parts that previously had to be turned by several people.

Special tools, automatically changed

“When customers like Scheuch provide very detailed information about the planned workpieces, we have the opportunity to optimize individual aspects to meet the exact requirements. In this case, we produced special clamping beam tools that differ from the standard tools in terms of height, radius and larger clearance,” explains Thomas Ostermair, Sales Manager at Hans Schröder Maschinenbau GmbH. The tools, which weigh up to 20 kilograms, do not have to be set up manually – the MAK 4 Evolution has a fully automatic tool changer that is controlled by the folding program. “A series for us usually only consists of 20 to 40 parts, and we have to retool the machine up to 20 times per shift,” reports Lukas Škorvánek, Team Leader Laser & Bending & Sheet Metal Production at Scheuch s.r.o. ”The automatic tool changer saves a considerable amount of time. In the time it takes to load the new sheet metal, it has already set up the station.”

Doubling

After one year, we can draw a positive conclusion about the use of the Schröder folding machine. Experience shows that the performance in the area of sheet metal folding has roughly doubled. Previously, two shifts were usually necessary, today one shift is sufficient. Press brakes are only used for processing a few parts. 90 percent of large parts are now bent on the folding machine, and this proportion is growing steadily. In addition to the high precision and the possibility of one-man operation, the doubling of speed in sheet metal folding is a significant advantage for Scheuch resulting from the purchase of the Schröder machine. After one year, it is clear to see that the current equipment in the sheet metal processing department at the Slovakian plant will make it possible to achieve the goal of doubling the production volume by 2025.

Machine in operation

MAK 4 Evolution UD

Folding machine up to 5.0 mm sheet thickness
Working length 4,000 mm
Graphic control POS 3000 3D
Clamping beam stroke 1090 mm
Clamping beam geometry 180°
Up-and-Down folding beam
Suction plates in gauge table
Fully-automatic tool changer
Remote maintenance