Capral felt that our business direction
is very much into the added value
part of aluminum extrusion and
technically we were looking for a
competitive edge knowing that the
competition here in Victoria is quite
fierce uncertainly from overseas.
We've designed the machine from the
ground up. We haven't seen anything quite
of this nature before that would allow an
advance clamping system that would
handle the type of material that they
put into the machine better than
typically we've seen and maintained. We
produced a machining cell that could
handle aluminium profiles of any shape
or size up to around about 350
millimeters in diameter. The old four and
five axis machines just didn't quite
have the flexibility or the reach to
move around a profile. A robot gives us
the functionality and flexibility to
keep a tool perpendicular to the
workpiece at all times. The length that
the customer wanted was to break into a
couple of new markets so we produced a
machine that could machine 17 meters at a time.
It can also be cut into smaller sections
to reduce the handling time to load on and off.
Already there are signs
that we have gained the ability to take
on more difficult, complex work. We've
got an example of an organization we've
worked with whereby we've actually taken
business from a Chinese imported product
which has enabled us to do it here in
Australia. This machine has enabled
us to do that. It's for a light bowl
which ultimately will be adorning the
streetscapes in Doha in the Middle East.
It's really already provided us with some great advantages.
We come from a maintenance background so we've seen the type of machines that do
and don't hold this type of material
well. So we've designed this machine from
the ground up to support the profile
while it's being machined
to give us greater flexibility and capabilities.
To complete a project of this nature it involves
quite a few engineering parties. We had
some of the best CAD/CAM available on
the market, which is Delcam. We like to
consider them a premium partner for this
project. We've engineered a lot of
proprietary software to get the
components talking. All the handling gear
was manufactured locally in Victoria.
Leemark Engineering, our manufacturing
partners, KUKA Robotics have helped us
in various ways from the ground up to
make sure the feasibility of this study
was possible, simulation before we put
the thing together and Rockwell
Engineering for all of the servo control
systems that we've used for the motion
on the saw blade. We've broken a bit of
new ground and we're hoping that this is
going to be the start of many great
things.
I think it is absolutely intrinsic to
manufacturer's such as Capral to
embrace this technology. It's certainly
where the future lies in manufacturing
in this country and our ability to be a
little bit innovative -- not necessarily
just with our material, aluminium, but the
consideration for other materials as
well -- is what this piece of equipment will provide us.
And it's going to be absolutely essential to the survival of this business.
