BODYCOTE, world leader in thermal processing services has been CNC retrofitting their machines at their facilities in Billy-Berclau – France for three years. (Business volume of € 800 M, 6,000 people, 190 factories worldwide, including 27 inFrance).
This plant is equipped with several machines that are experiencing recurrent failures due to their old age and have become a problem for their activity.
When Mr. DELETRE, the new general manager, came on board, he set forth a plan to renew the machines and improve the business activity.
He contacted HD AUTOMATISME, company specialized in maintenance and optimization of industrial equipment, mainly in digitizing and mechanical adjustments of machine tool-equipment to set up a first machine that would serve as a model for his plan.
HD AUTOMATISME has been in close relationship with Fagor Automation for 10 years, it is Fagor’s Authorized Technical Service Center (CTAF) for northern France and proposed to adapt their machines with a combination of Fagor CNC 8055 and Fagor motors.
The CNC offers specific features like modifying the tool path with a handwheel during an automatic cycle o creating a program from a part machined for the first time using several manual operations by validating the tool paths and the functions as you go.
After the success obtained in this initial retrofit, BODYCOTE launched a project to retrofit one by one all their machines that were equipped with an older generation CNC (NUM, SIEMENS, ROCKWELL or B & R).
So far, they have successfully retrofitted another eight machines and the remaining three will be retrofitted in a few months. This way, Bodycote will upgrade their facilities with more efficient machines and with more uniform automation thus considerably improving productivity of this factory that is specialized in thermal treatment, specially of pinions.
Mr. DELETRE mentions: “The future of our factory had to go through a much needed renewal of CNCs and PLCs of our production equipment. With a mixed and obsolete fleet, a decision had to be made, our business needed reliable equipment and flexibility for our employees in the manufacturing process.
Why FAGOR?: Besides their more economical offer vs their competitors’, the implementation ease, technical capability and process management that HD AUTOMATISME showed for these matters, convinced us since the installation of the first machine. We were on our way to the versatility and flexibility that we needed so much”.
Mr. HERDUIN, general manager of HD AUTOMATISME, adds: “Thanks to its high operating and integration flexibility, the FAGOR CNC has allowed us to consider and meet the technical aspects and also standardize the entire fleet of machines with the same configuration”.
Further information:
-BODYCOTE : www.bodycote.com
-HD AUTOMATISME : www.hdautomatisme.com
