KLM Engineering installs first 3.2 m bed Salvagnini P4Xe-3216 CNC panel bender in UK

As well as allowing the sale of two press brakes, the investment has accelerated throughput and imparted new levels of freedom to KLM's design team. Established for 35 years, KLM Engineering is a flexible manufacturing company with a diverse customer base. The largest portion of its business – approximately 40% – is attributed to providing bespoke manufacturing solutions to the construction sector. The remaining 60% is split equally between supplying to retail/point of sale customers, and the subcontract manufacturing of parts to other high profile industries. Having approximately 10,000 current product lines creates quite a manufacturing challenge for KLM, and in such price sensitive markets the company constantly seeks to boost efficiencies on its shopfloor. "Until recently, we were running five press brakes to capacity across a double shift system," explains the company's technical and sales director, Tom Rix. "Rather than replace or buy more press brakes, we decided to source a solution that would offer different functionality. "By investing in panel bender technology, we knew we would not only have the opportunity to do things faster and better – we would also be able to achieve far more in terms of design solutions." Mr Rix adds: "We've already transferred a lot of forming work to the panel bender, which has relieved our press brake bottleneck – in fact, we've sold two of the five machines we had. "Depending on the job, the panel bender can be up to 20 times faster than the press brakes. Generally, the more complex the bend sequence, the faster it is. Furthermore, while we can lose an hour setting a press brake, which makes it prohibitive for short runs, Salvagnini's ABA Automatic Blank-holder adjustment means set-up takes place in 'masked' time, effectively making it zero. Also, once we have loaded the panel bender with a design, we never have to do it again." KLM opted to include Salvagnini's HPT load/unload system, which allows rapid changeover of parts. This is key, as, typically, most components, no matter how many bends, can be processed in less than 1 minute. The HPT system also allows the operator to feed parts on to the loading table, so if batch sizes are low, quick changeovers are assured as there is no pallet to remove and re-stack. The company uses the P4Xe to process everything from 0.5 mm thick ceiling panels through to 2 mm trays and door frames for the automotive and construction sectors. Materials include aluminium, mild steel and pre-coated steel, while batch sizes range from 1-off up to thousands for some of its retail customers. Concludes Mr Rix: "Although we're expecting to see new opportunities in both retail and construction, winning contracts beyond our existing marketplace is where the Salvagnini will really pay. We are the only manufacturer with this machine in the UK, and while we've only had it a few weeks, we're already more than impressed – our customers will be too."