The Pros and Cons of Shop Floor Automation

Automation and manufacturing can seem like a great pairing, which has been around for well over three decades, thanks in part to the rise of the computer and related computing technologies, like robotics. While there are several advantages of automating a shop floor, there are some key considerations and reasons why certain tasks, like working with a press brake or plate roll, are better performed by human beings.

If you are considering updating your production environment, we invite you to review the following pros and cons to help determine the most appropriate investment of your resources.

Shop Floor Automation Pros

·         Improved Quality Control and Product Accuracy – Machines can perform precision work and increase overall quality.

·         Reduced Materials Waste – Automation helps reduce waste and associated costs.

·         Improved Production Times and Output – You are able to generate higher volumes in a shorter period of time.

·         Easy to Repeat Processes Numerous Times – Machines are able to replicate processes for an endless amount of time and deliver the same quality.

·         Better Safety – Machine can perform more dangerous tasks and reduce risks to employees.

·         Reduces the Number of Employees Needed – You need fewer employees to perform the same tasks.

·         Reduction in Production Costs – Total materials costs are reduced with automation.

·         Frees Up Employees to Work on Other Vital Tasks – You can have employees work on more detailed work machines cannot duplicate or on other such tasks.

Shop Floor Automation Cons

Just like there are advantages to automating certain processes on your shop floor, there are also disadvantages, depending on the size of your operation and available resources, as follows:

1.      Automating your shop floor could require a large initial upfront investment to purchase machines and equipment. In some cases, there are other options that can help lower the amount needed upfront, such as exploring leasing options or taking out a loan and making smaller monthly payments. Just remember, with leases and loans, the total cost of ownership will be more, in the long run, due to interest payments.

2.      Machines are limited in the types of tasks they can perform. With human employees, you can have them perform multiple and different types of work, as needed. In addition, certain processes could require more versatility than the machine is capable of performing.

3.      You could increase your carbon footprint. Some types of machines translate to using more energy and generating more pollution than using human workers. If you are concerned about your impact on the environment, spend some time researching and asking questions about how the new machine would impact your business’s carbon footprint.

4.      The total costs to purchase a new piece of equipment could cost more than you budgeted. You may have to pay to have your employees trained to use and operate the machine. There are maintenance costs associated with each piece of machinery you purchase. Furthermore, you have to also include the costs to automate your shop floor and update your production costs.

As you can see, there are pros and cons for automating your shop floor. For more information about equipment and machinery for automation and precision work output, please feel free to contact Quantum Machinery at (909) 476-8007 today!

Why Invest in a Welding Table?

For metal fabricators and machine shop owners, a welding table is a vital investment in order to complete welding jobs in-house. Welding requires a variety of methods, and some processes can be extremely complex to complete. Depending upon your shop’s needs, it is often more advantageous to invest in a single high-quality superior table that can be used for multiple welding jobs, rather than multiple tables of a variety of sizes, designs, and quality.

Welding Table

Choosing the most appropriate table for your business should focus on what types of welding jobs you perform frequently. It can be tempting to consider multiple tables for each of these jobs, but there are custom-designed tables available that will support a wide array of jobs and only require a single investment. As such, this allows you to make wise, effective, and efficient decisions to maximize your return on your investment.

Here at Quantum Machinery Group, we are pleased to offer the Siegmund line of professional welding tables. These tables have been put through extreme tests to ensure they meet the highest quality standards to provide years of service for your fabrication or machine shop business. Siegmund developed a brand new design with numerous features, including:

• Increased Load Capacity
• More Stability
• Better Flexibility
• Rounded Bore Holes
• Tool Steel Plasma Nitrided

To demonstrate the durability of their superior welding tables, Siegmund developed some rather extreme test conditions.

CNC Bending Machine

Test 1

The first test was to drop a compact car from an elevated height directly onto the table. While the car’s roof collapsed and the windows shattered, the table did not receive any damage, as it is also scratch-proof.

Test 2

For the second test, a Vickers hardness test was performed, where two front-end loaders dumped rocks and gravel onto the table, completely burying it underneath the rubble. The table was then lifted out and inspected for damage. Again, the table received no damage, thanks to its 700 Vickers protection rating.

Test 3

The third durability test was how the table held up when exposed to moisture. To illustrate the rust-proof feature, a hammer was placed on top of the table throughout the duration of the test. While the hammer developed rust, the table did not. Furthermore, rust stains from the hammer did not absorb into the tabletop and were easily wiped away with a cloth.

Test 4

To test just how durable the table was, three sticks of dynamite were secured underneath the table and detonated. After this, dust and residue left from the explosion were wiped away using a cloth.

In conclusion, if you are looking for the world’s hardest welding table, then a Siegmund table from Quantum Machinery Group is a great investment for your fabrication business or machine shop. In addition to Siegmund products, we feature a wide array of equipment and machines, including:

• 2, 3, and 4 Roll and Variable Geometry Plate Benders
• Basic to Full-Blown CNC Roll Benders
• Basic, Semi-Automatic, and Fully-Automatic Cold Saws
• Hydraulic, Hybrid, and All-Electric Press Brakes
• CO2 and Fiber Lasers
• Basic, Semi-Automatic, and Fully-Automatic Band Saws
• Basic, Entry Level to Full-Blown Mandrel and CNC Mandrel Rotary Benders
• Heavy-Duty and Versatile Shears

For more information about our metal fabrication machinery, which is stocked here in the United States, call Quantum Machinery Group at (909) 476-8007 to speak with a representative today!

Cold Saws vs. Band Saws: What’s the Difference?

If you’re in the market for a saw, it’s important to know what your options are. Different types of saws have different uses and knowing which one is right for the job at hand is an incredibly important part of making sure that job gets done quickly and correctly. In particular, understanding the difference between cold saws and band saws – two of the most popular and most used types of saws – will help make sure that you are using the right tools for the task at hand.

Cold saw vs band saw

Cold Saw or Band Saw?

To quickly sum up the difference between these two types of saws, it’s easiest to say that band saws are more versatile and can cut a wider variety of materials and volumes, whereas cold saws create a cleaner and more accurate cut. There are other differences (which we will go into below), but this difference is the most basic and the best place to start in understanding what sets them apart.

While band saws can cut a wider variety of materials, using one will leave a burr on the edges of whatever surface it is that is being cut. On the other hand, cuts made with cold saws are cleaner (leaving smoother edges) and tend to be more accurate.

Another crucial difference between the two is that band saw blades are disposable, and cannot be sharpened after they become dull. When a band saw blade has reached the end of its life, it should be discarded and replaced. Once a cold saw blade becomes dull, however, it can be sharpened. Cold saw blades can be sharpened between 30 to 40 times before the blade becomes too small to be used effectively, at which point it will have to be replaced.

Accuracy vs. Versatility

Because band saws don’t require as much expertise or scientific understanding to use, they tend to be more popular with beginners and for tasks that don’t require a high level of accuracy or mechanical specialization. Despite being easier to use, however, correct use of a band saw still requires using the right blade for the task at hand. Using blades with the wrong teeth per inch will either damage the material being cut or strip the teeth from the blade.

Cold saws, on the other hand, are popular with metal fabricators and other tradesmen that need a combination of precise handling with horsepower and torque. When using a cold saw, having a firm understanding of factors like chip load, blade teeth per inch, and rotations per minute are incredibly important; failure to understand all the factors will result in a botched job at best, and broken equipment or personal injury at worst.

Band saw or cold saw

Looking for quality saws, milling equipment, and other machinery? Quantum Machinery Group has a wide array of machine lines for jobs big and small, simple or complex. Find out more by speaking to one of our Sales Engineers today by calling 909-476-8007.

ROTARY BENDING VS. ROLL BENDING

Whether you are running a Rotary Bender, Roll Bender, Plate Bender, Press Brake or "fill in the blank"; you will discover, or already know that metal bending is truly an art.. But what is bending to the definitive point? Well bending in the metal fabrication world is to conduct a process that achieves a V-shape, U-Shape, channel shape, coil, or even a multi-radii shape with a piece of metal. Now one misconception that often arises when customers call us here at Quantum Machinery, is that a Roll Bender should be able to do anything a Rotary Bender can do, and vise versa, just to a lesser degree; so we would like to address that. In reality a Roll Bender and a Rotary Bender are like a pool and a spa, they are both fantastic at what they do, in fact what they do is almost similar, but they will perform best for what they were designed to do. 

Roll Benders, sometimes referred to as Angle Rolls, specialize in putting "sweeps" or as a scholar would say, radii, on a single piece of material. Roll benders comprise of three rolls which are positioned into a pyramid-like form, the machine is used either in the vertical position, or for larger section bending, laid on it's back in the horizontal position. After the "top roll" is positioned with your material placed and aligned within the rolls, the rolls move which produce a distinct radii on your piece. Now not all Roll Benders have stationary bottom rolls with a moveable top roll; there are also roll benders that have a stationary top roll, while the bottom rolls are moveable, allowing you to pre-bend your part. Roll bending is used in countless industries, and plays a vital role in the success for many companies all over the world. Now Roll Benders, are not just for putting a nice arc in your material on a single point, or numerous points (Ex.1B); plenty of companies use their Roll Benders to produce coils, used in the Heat Exchanger industries, Architectural industries, and the list keeps coiling upwards, (no pun intended). Now here is where the misconceptions start and how the two beasts differ. What a Roll Bender cannot do is put a perfect 90 degree angle into a piece of material. As shown in Ex.1A:

Ex.1A

Ex.1B

You may now be thinking, "Well then, what can I use to bend tight shapes such as a 45 degree, 90 degree or beyond." Luckily this is where the Rotary Bender has a play in the game. If you are looking for precision, the Rotary Draw Benders dominates the profile bending field. With a Rotary Bender, you can hit those tight radii that are desired for your applications; and in some cases, you can get down to a CLR that is literally just 0.7 times the outer diameter of the tube you would need to be bending (or as a processor of tubes would call it, less than 1xD). Another game changer that the Rotary Mandrel Bender brings to the table is the ability to have the most control, (more than any other metal forming process) with ovality and wall thinning of your material. Rotary Draw Mandrel Bending braces the material's flow by bending the material that is being formed using a mandrel that goes into the inner diameter of the tube, while precision tooling is making contact on the outside. A setup for a Rotary Bender uses a few different possible aspects: A pressure die that holds onto the straight section of a piece (which is sometimes called the Tangent). A Clamp Die is used if rotation of the piece that you are bending is required. A Mandrel is used to support the interior of a profile to keep the application from collapsing. And lastly, a Wiper Die which makes contact with the workpiece just before the tangent point of the I.R. (Inside Radius), wiping against the material to help with the prevention of wrinkles on the formed part's inside radius.

Ex. 1C

So now you know the main differences between a Roll Bender and a Rotary Bender, enough to choose wisely as to which type of machine YOU need would be!

Lastly is tooling for either of these styles of machines. Here at Quantum Machinery Group, we have a full in-house Quantum Machine Shop to provide you, our customers, with a complete turn key package. Meaning we don't stop at just selling you a machine, we will tread the waters with you if need be on your projects for your machinery that you purchase from us. We go through all of the stages with you: from the selling stage, to the application trials stage, the installation and training stage, and the after-sales support. Our goal at Quantum is to be your essential supplier of Metal Fabrication Machinery, Tooling, and HSS Cold Saw Blades.

Have a great week, until next time!

Faithfully,

- Quantum Machinery Group