Bulk gas system delivers continuous cutting for Amada UK

The Kidderminster-based sheet metal technology specialist sees some 1,200 visitors visit its showroom each year, and, according to Dave Groves, who manages technical demonstrations: “There is nothing more annoying than starting a demonstration on a brand new piece of equipment and being forced to stop to change over cylinders. The customer wants to see the machinery operating non-stop and the CryoEase gas supply system enables us to do that reliably every time.” Installed by Air Products, the CryoEase microbulk gas supply system allows Amada to demonstrate the benefits of continuous usage. Instead of using traditional cylinder packs, the new gas supply system has a storage tank, which can be located anywhere onsite and re-filled with liquid nitrogen using a special high pressure filling system, so avoiding downtime caused by the need to vent down tanks. For users of laser profilers, over 40 per cent of whom opt to automate their machinery, a continuous gas supply is vital in supporting ‘lights out’ production. Andrew Cornes, CryoEase service manager at Air Products, explains further: “The storage capacity of our smallest CryoEase system is 180 litres and in most cases we advise production managers that if they are using more than 10 cylinders of high-purity gases per month it may be worth switching to liquid storage. This will improve efficiency and bring other benefits too. For example, liquid storage can also be safer because it eliminates the need for cylinder handling and compressed gases can also be stored at a lower pressure.”