Carlton Laser invests in advanced CNC press brakes from LVD

Carlton Laser specialises in the subcontract manufacturing of food sorting machines, medical equipment, electrical cabinets and specialist vehicles components, for many blue-chip OEMs. Realising the need to address an increasing demand for high quality, small batch, short lead-time components, a project team was set up, headed by Carlton's founder Dennis Kent and operations director Mohan Jassi. The team embarked upon a six month investigation of potential suppliers, technology and machines, which consisted of supplier audits, extensive testing of equipment and technology, using test parts developed by Carlton, and visits to machinery users. Mr Jassi explains: "We knew we needed to de-skill the bending process of very accurate and difficult components ranging from batch quantities of 1 to 100 off, so we set out to find machinery that had the very best bending technology within the machine." A final evaluation included extensive bending trials in which assessments were made for ease of use, offline programming capability, pre-production set-up time, production time, and accuracy of parts. "Our task was to identify the best press brake and supporting technology on the market. We conclusively found that LVD's bending technology and the Easy-Form Laser in-process angle correction system outperformed all of the competition," concludes Mr Jassi. (Picture: Chris Phillips (left), managing director of LVD and Mohan Jassi (right), operations director of Carlton Laser Services, inspect test parts during bending trials.)