New sheet metal facility supports ambitious production plans

The floor space of the new facility is 5,170 m2, and investment has been ¥2 billion in this plant - ¥1 billion for construction and another ¥1 billion for new machines and equipment. The machine tool maker used to have an area at the Iga Machining Plant (Iga No.1 Plant) which was designated for the manufacture of sheet metal, but this new facility has been established to expand its in-house production capacity. At this new facility plant, the company has the latest equipment and machines, which create programs based on the 3D data automatically using the sheet metal development system, and which can machine using turret punch presses and automatic bending machines. Machining capacity is five times greater, and coating capacity has been boosted to eight times the previous capacity. Mori Seiki used to mainly manufacture the sheet metal for electric cabinets, but in future will put emphasis on the sheet metal for machine enclosures as well. The company is planning to make about 30 per cent of all the machine enclosures in-house. With the new sheet metal plant, the company has been able to reduce the time taken for machining sheet metal for electrical cabinet housings from 1 week to 3 days. As part of its Mori- 568PLAN (see Technology Zone for relevant article), the Mori-8 part of it sees the company's monthly machine production target at 800 units. In order to achieve this, the company will start in-house production at its own Sheet Metal Plant in addition to purchasing sheet metal from suppliers. The completion ceremony with the people from the construction companies and Mori Seiki employees was held on 16 October.