TPT September 2016

105 / 120

SEPTEMBER 2016 103
BEND I NG , END FORM I NG & SWAG I NG
New Canada facility and machinery
TUBE bending and end-forming
technology specialist Addition Manu-
facturing Technologies has expanded,
with a new, larger facility in Brantford,
Ontario, Canada. With a total of
22,500ft2 , the new location is nearly
double the size of the company’s
previous Canada location. The
additional space will facilitate growth
in manufacturing, engineering and
research and development.
In addition to increasing square
footage, the company has expanded
its manufacturing capabilities with the
purchase of a large-capacity boring
mill, which will be used for production
of larger machine components for both
Addition customers and for Addition’s
other North American locations.
“The new facility and equipment
allows for the production of larger
muffler projects than in the past
and significantly increases in-house
manufacturing,” said Doug DeVouge,
general manager of Addition Canada.
“With the expansion into this new state-
of-the-art building, Addition has been
able to increase production capacity
and efficiency of our silencer making
product line, and recently landed orders
from various companies worldwide for
which we previously may not have had
capacity.”
The expansion will eventually increase
the company’s workforce in Canada.
Addition also has manufacturing
facilities in the USA, Canada, Mexico,
UK, France and China. The company’s
products serve the automotive,
aerospace, furniture and ship building
market segments.
Addition Manufacturing
Technologies – USA
Website:
Adapting to new bending requirements
INCREASINGLY sophisticated pro-
cesses and the continuous trend for
on-demand production characterise the
new tube bending manufacturing, with
complex geometries of components,
new materials and the call for lower unit
costs and the simultaneously rapidly
changing batch sizes. Production
planners must adapt to this situation,
and this ultimately increases the
demands on machine operators, who
must implement changes reliably.
Schwarze-Robitec has reacted to
thesedevelopmentswithanewoperating
concept and the integration of new
functions in its CNC-controlled bending
systems. As a further development of
the NxG control system for bending
machines, which was presented last
year, NxG 2.0 simplifies and focuses on
the essentials of the operating concept
and new opportunities in the networking
of bending machines, with increased
flexibility in the production of bending
products.
Inorder tomake thebending technology
fit for ‘Industry 4.0’, basic modules were
integrated into the NxG 2.0 controller.
In addition to the standard statistics on
bent components, process data can
be gathered and evaluated. Integrated
sensors provide information on wear
values or, for example, the consumption
of lubricants, and allow conclusions to
be drawn about the expected bending
result, the state of the bending tools
or the need for maintenance of the
machine. This process data is backed up
on the corporate network or in the cloud.
The data is collected at a central location
and can be retrieved and analysed in
strict compliance with data protection.
Statistical information is viewed in real
time. The state of the machine and
the degree of wear of the tools are
permanently transparent.
The HMI control panel has also
been further optimised. The advanced
software with icon interface provides high
process reliability and intuitive operation.
All operations are clearly arranged and
structured. For example, the user finds
stylised, meaningful icons for different
categories, such as parameters for
dimensions, the transport, the tool
clamping or guide rails.
“This makes the development of
bending programs or the input of tool
data easier,” explained Bert Zorn,
managing director of Schwarze-
Robitec. “Moreover, all entries are
always inspected for validity, therefore
conflicting inputs are prevented.”
The CNC NxT 2.0 also includes
an advanced user management
system. This allows the assignment
of different user-levels to employees,
from the operation of the tube bending
production to complex processes
such as production planning, bending
equipment and optimisation of
the product, or integration into the
company’s infrastructure.
Schwarze-Robitec GmbH – Germany
Fax: +49 221 89008 9920
Email:
Website:
With the new NxG 2.0 controller in
addition to the standard statistics on bent
components, process data can be gathered
and evaluated