Prima Power has delivered one of its largest ever Flexible Manufacturing Systems installed in UK. The highly-efficient FMS now provides the well-known refrigeration manufacturer, Epta UK with unmanned, lights out fabrication production capabilities.

Founded in 1928 in Bradford, West Yorkshire as George Barker and remaining a major employer in the city, the business was purchased by the Epta Group in 1999 and this year was rebranded as Epta UK. Today, the company is renowned in the UK and beyond for its in-depth knowledge of, and its vast experience in the design and production of custom-made refrigerated units.

Epta UK is an important part of the EPTA Group, providing industry leading product management, system design and a range of manufacturing capabilities that result in the delivery of advanced refrigeration solutions. Since its absorption into the EPTA Group, Epta UK has continued to enhance its process’ in terms of technological know-how and manufacturing skills.

The company’s impressive, Bradford based production facility was renovated and expanded in 2007 and now covers 19,500 square meters. Ever increasing levels of demand for the company’s refrigeration products recently prompted Epta UK’s staff to search for a highly-efficient, automated system that would produce the required quality as well as quantity of fabricated parts.

After briefly considering a couple of alternative systems, a practical demonstration of the Night Train FMS® (Flexible Manufacturing System), proved that the advanced Prima Power solution was able to satisfy all of Epta UK’s challenging requirements, as it is able to perform high-speed laser cutting, punching and forming, as well as the storing of raw and processed material and parts. Prima Power’s LPe8f Combi, machine lies at the heart of the highly productive FMS that was designed to satisfy Epta UK’s specific demands.

Simon Hayes – Methods & Technology at Epta UK explained. “As an established market leader, we currently employ approximately 540 people both locally and nationally, our staff work closely with major food retail groups on the design, production and installation of custom refrigeration cabinets. Our cutting-edge designs and the quality of our refrigeration products are major factors in our continuing success. In order to keep pace with growing demand, and to ensure the continued quality of our products, we recently looked for a comprehensive fabrication manufacturing solution.

“After deciding that the Prima Power system would deliver the needed major boost to production, our meetings and close cooperation with Prima Power’s staff resulted in the development of what is the ideal Flexible Manufacturing System for both our current and our foreseeable needs. Since its installation Prima Power’s Night Train FMS® has proven its ability to integrate an entire fabrication process into a single, all-embracing manufacturing cell. The smart system provides automatic material handling and includes intelligent buffering. Automatic information flow from programming to production reporting is also a major benefit. In-short, the use of Night Train FMS® with its unmanned, lights-out capabilities means that we have minimised part manufacturing times and maximised available production time.

Simon Hayes continued “Prima Power’s Night Train FMS® takes up much less floor space than each of the individual manufacturing and storage elements would if purchased as separate units. Also, the system ensures less work-in-progress at any given time, resulting in a reduced requirement for storage.

“Whilst Prima Power’s Night Train FMS® takes care of all logistic operations, such as sheet-metal and manufactured component movements and all storage needs, the highly productive core of our new FMS is the Prima Power LPe8f Combi. This extremely flexible machine gives us the advantage of multiple Prima Power technologies, laser cutting, punching and forming all combined in the same adaptable package. For instance, the benefit of integrated punching and laser cutting is versatility. We use the LPe8f Combi’s turret punch press when it is easier or faster and the laser when we need flexibility. Depending on the task at hand, we are always able to choose the most productive manufacturing method.

“It helps that we now experience practically zero times for set-up changes as we are able to make fast, automatic changes from one product to another. Also, the system’s great flexibility means that we now need much shorter lead times for the introduction of new products and for product changes.”

Trains don’t stop running at night – why should production?

The history of Prima Power’s renowned Flexible Manufacturing Systems is a long and distinguished one. Almost three decades after the company’s first installation, hundreds of customers throughout the world have reaped the benefits of the efficiencies delivered by Prima Power’s bespoke, highly productive FMS systems.

Prima Power’s Night Train FMS® automates the entire material and information systems of a production facility and combines all individual manufacturing stages into a single cohesive and flexible process. All Night Train FMS® systems are carefully tailored to suit customer specific needs and are designed to incorporate the most appropriate elements from Prima Power’s comprehensive range. High performance Prima Power machine tools, integrated cells, automatic material handling solutions and software components are combined, and due to the sheer breadth of Prima Power’s offerings, the optimum, cost-effective solution can always be created.

Through the use of Night Train FMS® manufacturers are able to achieve remarkable cost efficiencies and enhanced flexibility when manufacturing fabricated components. Production efficiency levels approaching those of serial production can be reached in small batch fabrication situations. At the same time the technology is perfectly suited to highly efficient serial production. A well designed Prima Power Night Train FMS® is able to act as a dedicated manufacturing line for a single product, and in just a few seconds or minutes, can be converted to manufacture another totally different product for the next day, week or longer.

Although the system is totally customisable, typical Night Train FMS® work stages include punching, forming, shearing, laser cutting and bending. Even though the modular Prima Power FMS concept allows the system to be built according to plant-specific requirements, all installed systems need not remain static, rather they are able to evolve and constantly adapt to changing requirements. Cells, individual machines and work stations can be upgraded, changed or added and if required, storage capacities can be further expanded.

The COMBI LPe8f – an innovative ‘four-in-one’ solution

Prima Power’s LPe8f, as included in Epta UK’s Night Train FMS®, combines advanced servo-electric and cutting-edge fiber laser technologies in a manufacturing solution that offers outstanding flexibility, speed, accuracy and productivity. Accurate fiber laser cutting, punching, forming and bending tasks are performed at high speeds. Ease of operation, a large tooling capacity and minimum set up times add to the efficiency of the advanced Prima Power machine.

The LPe8f is able to accommodate sheet sizes up to 4,300 mm x 1,565 mm and has a maximum working area w/o repositioning of 3,074 mm x 1,565 mm. The COMBI LPe8f is available with high brilliance fiber laser sources of 2 kW, 3 kW or 4 kW. In addition to the usual materials, the COMBI LPe8f’s laser is also able to accurately cut materials such as copper or brass. Punching speeds of up to 1,000 hpm / 1 mm between holes are delivered with forces of 200 or 300 kN. Whilst tool rotation speed up to 250 rpm is provided.

Simon Hayes concluded. “As part of the EPTA Group we adhere to the group’s strict environmental policies that are focused on ensuring energy conservation and environmental impact reduction. We pursue these policies through initiatives such as the use of F-Gas compliant natural refrigerants.

“Our purchase of the Night Train FMS®, incorporating the LPe8f Combi, further reduces our manufacturing environmental impact as. Due to the use of technologies such as servo-electric punching and advanced fiber laser cutting, the FMS has very low energy consumption requirements. The system doesn’t need hydraulic oil, removing the need to dispose of hazardous waste, in addition the Prima Power system produces lower heat and noise emissions, which is better for our operators and also for the environment.”